Polonius:sandbox 1

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This is the sandbox for experimental and draft edits by Polonius. Dude: create a new section before editing a new page here.

draft of monument litigation page

Note: consider breaking this into a least two pages: (1) McIntire's Monuments, reason they were erected and the shift in public opinion that put them at risk (with out-links to McIntire's bio and the various Cvillepedia specific monument pages).(2) the monument litigation, incorporating material from the Lee monument page and shortening that page.

Photos: On McIntire bio page, take and upload photo of his plaque at Hist Soc.. Jacksn and Lee monumnet pages should have photos of statues with orange fence, and tarps.



McIntire's Monuments

During the City Beautiful movement, Ffigurative sculpture in public monuments were intended "to inspire the beholder with high ideals and to emulation of deeds of self-sacrifice, valor, or patriotism."<refname="NatRegHistPlaces">https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/104-5091_FourSculpturesMPS_1996_NRHP_nomination_NPS_final.pdf</ref> civic improvements made during the City Beautiful movement


Paul Goodloe McIntire, Charlottesville's single greatest benefactor, commissioned four such sculptures to be erected in the City:


1. "Their First View of the Pacific," the Meriwether Lewis and William Clark Sculpture by Charles Keck depicts three heroic-sized figures in bronze: William Clark is in the foreground; Meriwether Lewis is above and behind him; and Sacagawea, the Indian guide, crouches at their left, holding back her braids as she gazes down in wonder at the ocean. The sculptural group is set atop a rectangular pedestal of pink granite carved with scenes from the expedition's travels that is also of Keck's design. The art work is located in a small circular remnant of Midway Park at the intersection of Ridge and Main Streets and McIntire Road and was presented to the city of Charlottesville on 21 November 1919.

2. The Thomas Jonathan Jackson Sculpture by Charles Keck portrays a heroic-sized Jackson riding into battle on his horse, Little Sorrel, in bronze. Keck designed an elaborate oval pedestal of pink granite with the allegorical figures of Faith and Valor carved in high relief on the front as a special tribute to the revered Confederate general. Paul McIntire gave Jackson Park, a formal landscaped square adjacent to the Albemarle County Courthouse and bounded by High, Fourth, and Jefferson Streets, for the display of the art work, and the sculpture was presented to the city of Charlottesville on 19 October 1921.

3. The George Rogers Clark Sculpture by Robert Aitken depicts a seven-figure group in bronze atop a simple trapezoidal pedestal of pink granite also of Aitken's design. Clark is portrayed in conference with a standing Indian chief who shares the central focus. Theconqueror of the Northwest is mounted and leads three members of his expedition who, with guns ready but pointed down, cautiously look out from behind the horse at the Indian chief and two others of his tribe who stand and crouch ahead of the party. The sculpture was erected in a small unnamed triangular park at the eastern edge of the University of Virginia campus bounded by the intersection of University and Jefferson Park Avenues and the railroad tracks, and it was presented to the University on 3 November 1921.

4. The Robert Edward Lee Sculpture by Henry Shrady and Leo Lentelli portrays an heroic- sized equestrian figure of the celebrated Confederate general in bronze. A solemn and dignified Lee rides his horse, Traveller, returning to his men after the surrender at Appomattox, ceremonial sword at his side and hat in hand, to tell his men the war is over; we are all one people now, reconcile. It sits atop an oval pedestal of pink granite designed by architect Walter Blair that is decorated front and back with wreaths and an eagle carved in relief. Paul McIntire gave Lee Park, a formal landscaped square between Jefferson and Market Streets and First and Second Streets NE, for the display of the sculpture, and it was presented to the city of Charlottesville on 21 May 1924.[1]

Public attitudes shift

For their first ninety years the monuments were a souce of civic pride. Citizens donated money to rednwign brick walkways and plant gardens around the statues. Citizen donors and City Council paid to restore and maintain them, and improve gardens in the parks surrounding them. Public figures such as Councilor David Toscano (later mayor, then minority leader in the House of Delegates) used about $2,000 in federal grant money to clean the Jackson statue. In 1997, city planner Satyendra Huja (also later mayor) accepted about $60,000 in private donations for a two-year course of professional restoration for both Lee and Jackson. In 1999, then-Mayor Virginia Daugherty thanked the donors and gratefully received the restored statues on behalf of the city. Speaking about the restoration of the statue of Sacagawea, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Maurice Cox, then the only African-American on City Council, said, “It is an important responsibility for the city to maintain the historic statues.” (cite-- https://dailyprogress.com/opinion/opinion-commentary-saving-history-without-demonizing-others/article_d8d0c9be-47d4-11e7-8d95-b30e5a749a2a.html)

Activists threaten the monuments

Controversy over Confederate symbols is nothing new. Historian and library director at the Museum of the Confederacy John M. Coski recounts that the NAACP and Sons of Confederate Veterans have been roaming the American landscape "like professional gladiators ready to do battle" over Confederate symbols and their meaning, as far back as the 1960's. cite-- Coski, John, The Confederate Battle flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem (Belknap Press 2006) (ISBN 9780674019836 The revision, perhaps inversion of local opinion about Charlottesville's monuments largely started to build after 2012.

During the 2012 Charlottesville Festival of the Book, community organizer and activist Kristin Szakos asked about removing Charlottesville's Lee monument during a presentation by historian Ed Ayers.

“By the gasps around me, you’d have thought I’d asked if it was OK to torture puppies,” Szakos later said. Cite-- https://dailyprogress.com/news/szakos-decries-response-to-statue-comments/article_2c62aadd-9c17-5fd1-9416-d892102037ef.html

The vitriolic attacks Szakos said she received confirm: at the time public opinion was largely on the side of the monuments. But local attitudes began to shift in 2013 after the killing of George Zimmerman and the founding of Black Lives Matter, and especially after 2015 when Dylann Roof shot up a black church while waving the Confederate Battle flag. Some activists saw in the mounting outrage an opportunity to bring about a major shift of view about all things Confederate, especially the flag. Michael Signer, Cry Havoc: Charlottesville and American Democracy Under Siege (New York: Public Affairs, 2020) ISBN 9781541736153 p. 43.

Shortly after Roof's rampage a judge in Danville, Virginia, ruled that the city of Danville could order the removal of the Confederate battle flag at the Sutherlin Mansion. Virginia's monument protection law did not apply to a flag and flagpole, the Judge ruled. That decision gave fresh impetus to Szakos and her fellow activists in Charlottesville. Michael Signer, Cry Havoc: Charlottesville and American Democracy Under Siege (New York: Public Affairs, 2020) ISBN 9781541736153 p. 37.

The next year, in January 2016, a young, inexperienced and politically left wing City Council took office, Ms. Szakos among them. She and fellow Councilor Wes Bellmay later infamous for Tweets like "I don't lik white people so I hate white snow!!!!!" (sic) persuaded the fresh new Mayor Mike Signer to consider removing the Lee monument. That Danville decision and a Democratic Governor in office had opened what the activists considered a"window of opportunity." Cry Havoc pp. 37-39.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Singer regarded tearing down monuments, and censoring ideas, as Orwellian. Cry Havoc pp. 46. To slow down the political bandwagon, take some time to think about it, Signer called for a Blue Ribbon Commission of Race, Memorials, and Public Spaces (Szakos and Bellamy tried to rig the outcome). Cry Havoc, pp. 48, 52 & 55.

A year later, in February 2017, after the Commission tendered its report, City Council voted 3-2 to remove the Lee monument. Signer voted against it. He had learned in Black churches that many of the older folks thought it a foolish waste, said "it's out history too". The Jackson monument, widely revered as one of the best equestrian statues extant, was to be left in place. Cry Havoc, pp. 39.

Before the August 12, 2017 Unite the Right rally roiled the City, a majority of locals (including a descendant of slaves) speaking before the Blue Ribbon Commmission on Race Memorials and Public spaces advoated keeping the Lee and Jackson staues where they stood. Cite: https://richmond.com/news/virginia/in-charlottesville-support-voiced-for-lee-jackson-statues/article_ef708687-20f7-5f2c-a79c-18b3d2e150d0.html Afterward, opinions shifted. Both City Councilors who had voted agianst the Lee removal resolution the previous February, in August reversed their position. [cite: https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/347133-charlottesville-mayor-requests-virginia-governor-for-confederate-statue]

While painted in the media as a conflict over race, in fact the most striking divide between the two sides over the monuments among locals had to do with age, politics, and even religion. (cite) [ref = New Yorker] https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-church-leaders-in-charlottesville-prepared-for-white-supremacists

Anti-monument protestors were mostly (though not exclusively) young, many students, overwhelmingly White, self-described 'progessives' railing against what they called symbolic reminders of a racist past. Some of the most zealous were affiliated with religious organizations, for whom purging Confederate idols became an article of faith. [ref= New YOker] (cite: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/09/13/are-confederate-monument-fans-committing-sin-idol-worship-an-unusual-charlottesville-bible-study-makes-case/ For them, , see also https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/community-members-gather-to-cleanse-site-where-at-ready-statue-stood/article_b7b099db-dbe2-52b3-9ec2-8b864131efa4.html)

The New Yorker described the other, pro-monument side, as Old Virginia (perhaps better described as elderly Charlottesville: two senior citizen Plaintiffs had died before the case was resolved). [ref = New Yorker] [ref == LLoed Smith (age 86) and Virgnia Amiss (95). Again, they were overwhelmingly though not exclusively White, among them historic preservationists, established lawyers, and among the Plaintiffs a few affiliated with heritage organizations like Sons of Confederate Veterans. There were also political conservatives or non-political independents objecting to the sanitizing the past to comport with today's left wing party line. (Cite to 'presentism) An "Orwellian" enterprise (to use Mayor Signer's phrase). .

Most importantly, on the other side also was Virginia law.

The Monument Protection Law

The law protecting war monuments and memorials derived from in piecemeal 19th and early 20th century legislation authorizing specific Virginia counties to erect Confederate war memorials in front of their courthouses. These one-at-at-a-time authorizations usually included language protecting the monument against removal, once erected.

In 1904 the legislature created a blacnket authority for all Virgnia counties to erect Confederate war memorials. Then over succeeding decades amendments expanded the law to include most conflicts: the American Revolution; the War of 1812; the War with Mexico in 1847; Spanish American War; World War I; World War II; the Korean War; the Vietnam War, and others.

But detractors point out the law was redolent of White Supremacy. The 1904 law was tainted by association with Virginia's Constitution of 1902, insituting poll taxes and other barriers to disenfranchise Black voters. Detractor argues law that originally protecting only Confederate monuments likewise reflected fear of Blacks taking over local governments, and using their new political power to dismantle the symbols of White authority. (cite)

In the course of over a dozen amendments in its 100 year history, two significant changes to the law were its extension in 1997 to protect monuments in all localities. And in 2000 an enforcement provision was added, to clarify that "any person with an interest in the matter" could sue their own local authorities for encroaching on a monument. If the citizens won, they'd recover the cost of the litigation including attorneys fees.

City votes to remove or to hide monument=

In February 2017 Charlottesville's City Council voted a resolution to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and a subsequen resolution to offer it for sale. Then in August 2017 reacting Unite the Right rally, thwarted in physical removal by Court injunction, in August 2017 the City tried instead removing the statues from public view, permanently concealing them under tarps. The city also voted to remove the statue of Confederate Lt. Genral Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.

Lawsuit filed to preserve monuments, and preliminary injunction granted

Citizens including practicing and retired lawyers had written City Council in 2016 saying that removing war monuments woulds illegal. (cite) So did lawyer and Mayor Signer, on the dais during the vote. [cite] Over a dozen plaintiffs filed suit in March 2017.

Twelve Plaintiffs among them local lawyers, military veterans, Charlottesville citizens and taxpayers, relatives of the donor McIntire and of artist Henry Shrady, and two organizations: the Monument Fund, Inc. and Virginia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, filed a suit in March 2017 claiming that Council's action to remove the statue was illegal under Virginia law.

The PLaintiffs filed suit as individuals with a personal interwst in historic preservation, some as City taxpayers challenging an illegal expenidutre of tax funds, and all invoked a statutory cause of action (since removed) allowing "any person with an interest in the matter" to sue their own local auhtoirties to prevent monument desecration.

Judge Moore granted a temporary injunction in May 2017. [cite] Judge Moore ruled that Virginia's monument protection law did apply to the Lee monument. He differed with the Danville decision on the facts: this was an actual statue of a Confederate general, not simply a flag and a flagpole. And as to the law, he simply disagreed that the law did not apply. [cite]

But then came another major media event: the street riots in Charlottesville of August 12, 2017, when right wing and left wing activistsclashed. The right wing claimed to be rallying in support of the Lee monument. That further cemented in the public mind the connection between Confederate history, and contemporary neo-Nazis. [cite: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/charlottesville-rally-protest-statue.html

At the next City Council meeting after furious left wing activists trampled the dais, there could no longer be found a single Councillor willing to support preserving the Lee and Jackson monuments. They voted to remove bot and failing that, to cover them permanently with tarps. Signer said, the events of August 12 had tainted them, "changed their meaning forever." In the popular imagination they no longer had any conceivable benign reason to exist. [cite]

City Council's iconoclasm extended over the next year to removing as well the Lewis & Clark monument for assertedly demeaning Sacagewea; and as the contagion spread U Va.'s Board of Visitors would later vote to remove their statue of Revolutionary war hero George Rogers Clark (brother of William Clark). [cite]

The injunction, meanwhile, was confirmed and expanded to protect Jackson and to force the City to remove the ugly tarps they draped over both statues. [cite]

After Three Years of Litigation, Plaintiffs Win

The ligigation over the monuments itself was monumental. Judge Moore called it "one of the most complex cases I have ever heard or been involved in;" with "more attorneyss appearing on this case than I have ever known;" counsel exerted "maximum effort.' [cite: Jan. 21, 2020 Opinion Letter pg. 5-6, cite to law school website]

Hoping to dodge the monument law, the City tried to argue that the giant monuments of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan "Stonwal" Jacksonn in military unifrom riding their war horses Traveler and Littelr Sorell -- were not war memorials. This postion, which the Judge called contrary to common sense, prolongued the litigation. Ultimately the Jduge ruled that they were monuments to war veterans. (cite to judge rules they are Confederate monuments protected by law https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/charlottesvilles-confederate-monuments-are-protected-judge-rules-180972096/


The city also argued that the law did no aply to monument erected before the law became applicable to locialite in 2998. The jduge decidd this too agains them: clearly the law wa intedned to portect all war memorials, not just those recently erected.

The conflict that most people, and the mdeia beleleived the case was about: symbiols of Whate Supremeacy against anti-racists, in fact was neither decisive nor even much argued. The Judge pointed out (cite to opinion letter] "some people think --. whiole otehrs ting." 9cite to opin oin letter0

Change of the law, and Appeal

Mostly as a result of a court redistricting decision, control of the Virginia General Assembly reversed, from conservative Republican to 'Progressive" Democrat. The Democrats' first order of business was to gut the monument protection law. [cite]

Platinffs' motion for partical dissputon, Defneats resistance.

Virginia Supreme Court Decision

?

Subsequent proceedings

? As of this writing. . . .


[cites]

religious--Episcoplain, "mostly white cngregati" favors monument removal https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/07/02/charlottesvilles-confederate-statues-in-limbo-with-episcopal-clergy-hopeful-for-their-removal/

religious--inuted outsiders https://auburnseminary.org/voices/what-i-saw-in-charlottesville/


five statues https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/articles/johnny-reb-is-gone-heres-the-status-of-the-5-other-charlottesville-area-statues-activists-want-removed

George Floyd inflames monumnet rempoval https://www.c-ville.com/on-guard-opposing-camps-face-off-as-sun-sets-on-confederate-statues/

partial dissolutoin https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/monument-fund-asks-to-partially-dissolve-motion-prohibiting-removal-of-charlottesville-confederate-statues/article_b19444ec-1d05-5ce6-b6c0-d2f6f81a9cb0.html

decision on inj. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/14/760876494/judge-blocks-removal-of-confederate-statue-that-sparked-charlottesville-protest

can't find homes https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/investigations/confederate-monuments-cant-find-homes-after-charlottesville/65-512823821

judge rules they are Confederate monuments protected by law https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/charlottesvilles-confederate-monuments-are-protected-judge-rules-180972096/

Judge rules they are Confede ate monuments. Wash Post sasys 'retroactiveity' still to be deicded but in fact it alrady had been) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/charlottesvilles-statue-defenders-win-partial-victory-in-lawsuit/2019/04/30/18979542-6b6d-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html?noredirect=on


U Va litigatoin filing website https://statues.law.virginia.edu/litigation/payne-v-charlottesville

city vs. rural, also 'these young people" https://www.virginiamercury.com/blog-va/in-six-rural-virginia-counties-residents-vote-overwhelmingly-to-keep-confederate-monuments/

white anti-racism groups prediominently female (describes SURJ) https://crossculturalsolidarity.com/contemporary-white-antiracism/

Diversity of protestors nationwide https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2020/07/08/the-diversity-of-the-recent-black-lives-matter-protests-is-a-good-sign-for-racial-equity/

large somtime majoirty-white crowds https://theundefeated.com/features/why-did-black-lives-matter-protests-attract-unprecedented-white-support/

descendants of slaves support keeping monuments https://www.c-ville.com/not-black-white-lee-statue-evokes-deep-feelings-racial-history

Lee monumnet https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Robert_Edward_Lee_Sculpture#start_entry

Nominatoin Lewis & Calrk https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/104-0273_TheirFirstViewofthePacific_1997_Final_Nomination.pdf

nomination Lee monument https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/104-0264_Robert_Edward_Lee_Sculpture_1997_Final_Nomination.pdf

Four McIntire sculptures nominaton f0orm https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/104-5091_FourSculpturesMPS_1996_NRHP_nomination_NPS_final.pdf

Wikiwand-- another sbtie about the statue and te lawsuit https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Robert_E._Lee_Monument_(Charlottesville,_Virginia)

overwheklmingy young, white crowds at BLM protests https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/george-floyd-white-protesters.html

blacks push back against whites taking over protests https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/nyregion/black-lives-matter-white-people-protesters.html

confederate symbols renoved as a result of eorge Floyd and Dylann Roof https://apnews.com/article/us-news-race-and-ethnicity-virginia-us-supreme-court-laws-9a4d17b9728f15e6972b17f708e6a4b0

special session attempts to revome 30 day waiting period https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-house-confederate-statue-bill/2020/09/08/9a9bf9ca-f20d-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html

chnage of Va monument law refelcted change of poltical party control https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/486560-virginia-lawmakers-undo-protections-for-confederate-monuments

cange of law was part of removing o'old recists laws stll on the books" https://apnews.com/article/b147143cbf62799854b76d730b181490

  1. NatRegHistPlaces"