Some descendants of Confederate Civil War leaders Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Jefferson Davis are siding with those who believe monuments to their famous ancestors should be pulled down and moved to other settings, such as museums.
A great-great-grandson of Stonewall Jackson on Thursday told reporters that he believes the monument to his Confederate ancestor, as well as others in Virginia’s capital of Richmond, were constructed as symbols of white supremacy and should be taken down.
“They were constructed to be markers of white supremacy. They were constructed to make black people fearful,” Jack Christian said. “I can only imagine what persons of color who have to walk and drive by those every morning think and feel.”
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Christian said that he used to be open to the idea that the statues on Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue might be acceptable if context were added to explain why they were built.
However, the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, has shown that to be impossible, Christian said.
A descendant of Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States of America, said he supports moving the statues to appropriate settings.
Bertram Hayes-Davis said that he believes that “complete removal is wrong” and the best solution would be to put the statues “in a historic place where the entire story can be explained.”
Tom Payne says he knows the perfect place: Beauvoir, a privately run museum on 20 hectares in Biloxi, Mississippi, that once served as Davis’ retirement home.
Payne, executive director of the museum, on Thursday issued a statement offering to accept monuments that “any city or jurisdiction has decided to take down.”
Robert E. Lee V, the great-great-grandson of the Confederate general, said the family hates to see the statues be a source of division.
“If taking down the statues helps us not have days like Charlottesville, then we’re all for it,” Lee said. “Take ’em down tonight.”
Christian and his brother, Warren Christian, said in a letter to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney published by Slate on Wednesday that it is “long overdue” for the city to remove overt symbols of white racism and white supremacy.
“While we are not ashamed of our great-great-grandfather, we are ashamed to benefit from white supremacy while our black family and friends suffer,” they wrote. “We are ashamed of the monument.”
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