Monuments men: It was never about a statue, say Landrieu and Bellamy

Former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu and Charlottesville City Councilor Wes Bellamy have a lot in common. They’re both Southerners who, as elected officials, have gotten death threats for daring to say it’s time for Confederate monuments to go. And they’ve both written books on the topic, which brought them to the same Jefferson School […]

Uninvited callers: Activists confront United Daughters of the Confederacy

As the United Daughters of the Confederacy gathered in Richmond last week for its annual convention, members were met with some unexpected visitors. Around four dozen demonstrators from Charlottesville and Richmond, many of them wearing hats, pearls, and white gloves, stood outside the UDC’s mausoleum-like headquarters on the BoulevardNovember 4. They came to accuse the […]

Statue hearing: Councilors immunity still being argued

  So far, Judge Rick Moore has accumulated six files pertaining to the lawsuit filed a year ago against Charlottesville and its city councilors for voting to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee—and that doesn’t include the transcripts, he told lawyers in Charlottesville Circuit Court April 11. At the latest hearing, the city […]

Re-righting history: Katie Couric documents what divides us

During her 15-year tenure as NBC “Today Show” co-anchor, UVA alum and journalist Katie Couric was known as America’s Sweetheart. These days, she’s way past that chipper morning news persona, and having finished a six-part series delving into the most contentious issues facing the country today, she says she’s exhausted. Couric was in Charlottesville April […]

Tarps off: Statue lawsuit looks headed to trial

In the latest court hearing on the lawsuit stemming from City Council’s vote a year ago to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee, the tarps covering Lee and his Confederate general buddy, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, weren’t the main reason for the court date. But the judge’s ruling that the shrouds must come down […]

‘Proud’ to be a racist: A grand dragon goes on the record

Pelham, North Carolina, is just across the border from Danville, Virginia, which sports one of the largest Confederate flags in the country flying beside U.S. 29. There’s not much going on in Pelham, but it does have a post office, and a P.O. box there is the address of the Loyal White Knights of the […]

General Lee wins first court skirmish

At the end of a six-hour hearing May 2, a judge enjoined the City of Charlottesville from removing its statue of General Robert E. Lee for the next six months. More than 150 years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, the battle over Confederate monuments continues. Protesters in favor of ousting the statue chanted outside Charlottesville […]

Legal front: Lawsuit filed to halt removal of General Lee statue

Nearly a dozen citizens filed a not-unexpected lawsuit and an injunction today in Charlottesville Circuit Court to stop the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee and any further tampering with Lee and Jackson parks, both donated by Paul Goodloe McIntire. The plaintiffs include descendants from the park donor and the sculptor, as […]

Now what? City Council votes to remove Lee statue

Last month’s City Council vote on a motion to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee deadlocked 2-2 and left the chamber in disarray for 30 minutes. The issue was back on the agenda February 6 after Councilor Bob Fenwick announced he was changing his abstention to a vote to remove the statue, and […]