VA History Office
NCA Monuments Dedicated on Memorial Day
Since Memorial Day was instituted in 1868 (initially as Decoration Day), this event at the end of May became an opportunity to dedicate new monuments in national cemeteries.
[i] The installation of figurative or symbolic memorial objects on hallowed ground fulfills a goal articulated the following year by Army Superintendent of National Cemeteries Brevet Major Edmund Whitman: burial grounds were selected with an eye toward “favorable conditions for ornamentation, so that surviving comrades, loving friends, and grateful states, might be encouraged to expend liberally of their means for such purposes.”[ii] The placement of monuments (not to be confused with individual grave markers) began to arrive in the 1870s.
Earlier this year, a new Danville-themed Monopoly game began to fly off the shelves at Walmart on Mount Cross Road. Danville citizens were excited to play a game in which they could buy properties that are familiar to them, but some were not impressed with the Danville-opoly game board.
Tommy Bennett, president of the NAACP Danville Branch, said his phone rang off the hook with calls asking if heâd seen the game board, and its apparent lack of diverse Danville landmarks.
âItâs not [representative of] the All-America City of Danville,â Bennett said.Â
The board does feature properties such as the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, Bridge Street, Averett University, George Washington High School, the Danville Science Center, Ballad Brewing, the Danville Courthouse and more. To Bennett, what it doesnât feature is an integral part of the city too.
Since 1976, Rev. Dr. Cecil Bridgeforth, Sr. has been preaching at Shiloh Baptist Church on Betts Street in Danville. The churchâs home, the Almagro community, became Bridgeforthâs home, and over the years, he has continued to advocate for the community that so many black Danvillians have flourished from.
While its exact establishment date is unknown, Almagro was a town to itself just west of Danville, and according to Bridgeforth, was incorporated in Chatham.
The town, located off of what is now Industrial Drive, had its own post office and police department. Bridgeforth said it was one of the very few black towns in the country.Â