By Ann McLean and Patricia N. Saffran
August 25, 2025
The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation (SVBF), on behalf of concerned citizens, filed a request for an emergency injunction June 27 against the city of Richmond to prevent previously removed Monument Avenue Beaux Arts monuments and cannons from being sent to LA’s Monuments Exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art. The show, which will open this fall, will be a controversial display of some graffiti laden and damaged Confederate sculptures along with modern works satirizing the South. The negative condition of some of the pieces will only serve to stir up racial animus and animosity toward Confederate memorials still standing. A number of the monuments started to be vandalized after the Charleston shooting event of 2015 and more memorials were attacked and removed in the aftermath of the 2020 riots. In addition, the exhibition has condemned the South in their press release as “white supremacists” for putting up funerary monuments well after the Civil War even though the North similarly put up funerary monuments well after the war.
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The LA Monuments show ignores basic facts about the aftermath of the Civil War. Having a good death in 1800s was very important, meaning if possible, being surrounded family and friends when passing as Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson experienced. Since that was impossible on the battlefield, being given a decent burial became meaningful. This period saw new developments in embalming techniques that allowed the dead whenever possible to be transported back to their homes for burial, thus the need for numerous funerary monuments mostly organized by grieving widows. Since over 600,000 died in the war, the extreme grief was felt by both sides and given tribute by monuments and statues even later when grandparents and relatives died.
Unlike the SVBF, Richmond’s Valentine Museum has cooperated with LA, and has worked to help coordinate this exhibit with the Black History Museum (BHM.) Their director, Shakia G. Warren, hopes that the LA exhibition will “spark national dialogue on race and power.” According to the Valentine’s director, Bill Martin, they’re sending the supine paint splashed Valentine sculpture of Jefferson Davis. 1907, and he has stated publicly that preserving the toilet paper noose, paint and other evidence of vandalism is vitally important. (“Why History Matters” symposium, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Nov. 4th, 2023) He explained that the Black History Museum will be sending pieces [including the Matthew Fontaine Maury Monument] as well. There remains some controversy as to which sculptures the BHM has jurisdiction even though they’re shipping them to LA.
The SVBF’s court proceedings so far have yet to decide ownership for Richmond’s historic monuments, that were created for the general public and funded by residents of all racial backgrounds, white, ’negro’ and ‘Indian.’ (Richmond News Leader, R. B. Mumford, Jr., “Dream of Maury Memorial True After Years of Toil”, 1929; Richmond Public Library Maury Monument File.) At present, the court has ignored the SBVF’s request for an emergency injunction to stop the monuments from being sent to LA due to the chance of irreparable harm to the fine art and the fact that few monument protection laws exist in California. On August 14th a Judge in Shenandoah Valley Circuit Court refused to hear particulars of the SVBF suit, setting a new hearing date for August 26th, when legal ownership of Richmond’s public art which stood on Monument Avenue over 100 years, will be contested. Unfortunately, the priceless art works may already have been sent to LA by that date.
In contrast to Richmond’s stalemate, Charleston’s preservationists have scored a victory in court. The recently created non-profit, the Calhoun Monument Preservation Society, achieved a settlement from the city of Charleston. The previously removed statue of U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun, 1896, by Scottish-American artist John Massey Rhind, will not be going to LA’s Monuments exhibition, as the museum requested. Instead, it will go to a new Charleston location and not replaced on Marion Square.
Brett Barry, President of the American Heritage Association, which oversaw the Calhoun court case, explained, “We have had an outpouring of support from businesses and donors that want to help. The Calhoun monument is on track to be the first monument re-erected since the late unpleasantness of 2020. However, we may be getting another monument re-erect before Calhoun (stay tuned!)”
A spokesman for the Monumental Task Committee, a preservationist group in New Orleans, complained that his group is being stonewalled about which Confederate sculptures would be sent to LA. He said, “We met with the lieutenant governor and attorney general and they didn’t seem to know which statues have been requested by LA.” The group wants to find out which pieces are at risk of being shipped so that they can start a court action to oppose sending them to the LA museum show. A poll on their website shows the same figure seen around the country, that ⅔ in Louisiana want their Confederate statues standing.
Just as in New Orleans where officials seem to be acting against residents in regards to Confederate statues, the US Congress recently saw a similar action to oppose the public’s will regarding Southern history. Secretary Hegseth in accordance with the public’s wishes has been renaming military bases with the original last names, but honoring a different solider. The original names had been erased by the now defunct Naming Commission.
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On July 15, the House Armed Services Committee included an amendment to prevent the Pentagon from having funds to change the names back. One of the congressmen to endorse this amendment is Representative Don Bacon, Republican, Nebraska, who gave his opinion but never acknowledged that he and his colleges are going against the public. Bacon crossed party lines, along with Representative Derek Schmidt, Republican, Kansas, who refused to send a statement, to vote with the Democrats. Bacon explained, “I oppose having military bases named after Confederate generals who violated their oaths and, for the most part, were terrible generals. We passed renaming legislation in the 116th Congress with a Democrat House and a Republican Senate, and overrode a President’s [Trump’s] veto . . . It doesn’t get any better than Eisenhower [who admired Lee], Benavidez and Moore.”
While preservationists in several states wait for the outcome of which statues will be sent to LA’s Monuments exhibition against the public’s will, there is some good news regarding another historical monument. Moses Ezekiel’s Reconciliation Memorial, 1914, is being sent back to Arlington National Cemetery after a recent loan agreement with Secretary Hegseth and Governor Youngkin. It was reported that the cost to restore the monument would be a whopping $10 million and it would take two years. Ernest Everett Blevins, Historic Preservation expert, disagrees with the estimate. Blevins says the number of $10M to restore the monument is likely inflated, which often happens with estimates provided by the Congressional Office of Budget. Blevins reasons the $3 million removal cost included Section 106 compliance and satisfying such things as the HABS documentation, which will not be needed to restore. He says, “It should cost less than $3M to restore the monument.” Even with new interior bolts and cleaning the cost would be “at worst case, $5M.”
In general, despite the exceptions, officials and the courts haven’t been responsive in a timely manner to prevent sending local commemorative Confederate war memorials to LA’s Monuments exhibition.
