Grappling with the past: Historical society struggles to find its way

By Ben Hitchcock “I feel like I’ve been training for this one job for 30 years,” said Coy Barefoot when he took over as executive director of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society in April of 2018. In an interview with ilovecville.com, the local author and media personality expressed his desire to rebrand the organization and […]

This week, 10/30

“The plaintiffs: Who’s who in the fight to keep Confederate monuments” was a fairly straightforward feature story we published in March, about the 13 people and organizations suing the city over council’s vote to move the Lee and Jackson statues. As I wrote in an editor’s letter back then, “Much blame (not to mention death […]

In brief: Not the Daughters of Confederacy tour, City Council is back, no confidence in Cumberland, and more

Tour de force For the past couple of years, Jalane Schmidt, UVA professor and activist, and Andrea Douglas, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center director, have been conducting tours of our downtown monuments, providing new context for the Confederate statues that have long dominated Court Square and Market Street parks. Now, those who haven’t seen […]

Slight snag: City Council candidates, new PAC launch campaigns

It wasn’t your typical launch party. Supporters of local activists Don Gathers and Michael Payne gathered at Kardinal Hall January 8 for the official tossing of the hats into this year’s City Council races. But Gathers made a different kind of announcement: A doctor’s visit three hours earlier had convinced him to postpone his campaign […]

YOU Issue: Monuments to women: Why doesn’t Charlottesville have any?

“C’ville is awash with monuments. Why no statues to women besides a cowering Sacajawea (who happened to be pregnant but still led the white guys through the wilderness)?” – Donna Lucey “We do have three statues of women, you know,” says former mayor Virginia Daugherty, her soft Southern voice a bit sly. She’s referring to […]

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 […]

Unlawful assembly: Cops call for one, change their mind at UVA

Police called unlawful assemblies last summer after the KKK rally and before the Unite the Right event began. This summer, it appeared Charlottesville had gotten through the August 12 anniversary weekend without the declaring of any unlawful assemblies—but that wasn’t the case. At the August 11 UVA rally—after students had moved their protest to Brooks […]