The monument in Charlottesville, Virginia commemorating Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and his service to the citizens and Commonwealth of Virginia. Photo courtesy of Cvillepedia.
The Charlottesville, Virginia, City Council has voted to sell the “Stonewall” Jackson monument that was taken down in summer to a Marxist organization featuring art work and exhibitions that are “anti-American.”
Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville
The vote was taken at a meeting on December 20 and was unanimous among Council members. The monument will be sold to LAXART, a non-profit visual arts organization in Los Angeles which plans to exhibit several “decommissioned Confederate monuments.” One such monument already taken to LAXART is the Robert E. Lee statue that was taken down in New Orleans, the first Confederate monument removed in a prominent city.
The bronze statue of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was originally placed at the Charlottesville Courthouse in 1921. Sculpted by Charles Keck, it was commissioned from the National Sculpture Society by philanthropist Paul Goodloe McIntire. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, that designation has afforded the fine art, highly expensive statue no real protection, it appears. The LAXART organization is said to be giving $50,000 for the statue.
Marxist Propaganda to be Added at Monument
LAXART’s Director Hamza Walker spoke with reporters from NBC29 in December about the statue’s future. He was asked about the goal of the exhibition, stating the Confederate monument will be displayed in a modern context. (Marcilla, Max, nbc29.com, “Charlottesville Votes on Future of Jackson Statue,: Dec 12 2021)
“[The new exhibition will] Get us on the same page in terms of recognizing that the Civil War was, in fact, fought over slavery, not a set of ideals that would somehow transcend that fact and then to move forward with what kind of country we want to be,” Walker stated.
In fact, examples of some of LAXART exhibitions are found to be disturbing portrayals of traditional American ideals or simply lewd art. One exhibition features unprintable words (here) and is entitled “Remote Castration.” One especially anti-American display called “Reconstitution” features new themes placed prominently atop Arabic script boldly showing such words as “Poverty and Sadness for Which it Stands,” “Red Skin Bounty Tis of Thee,” “Is Republic Fair, Bombs Bursting Air,” “500 Years Violence Purple Mountain Majesties,” and “Shed Grace on Thee American Brutality.”
Rejection of Bids
The City Council at the same December 20 meeting held a public forum to aid in deciding how to disperse a $12.1 million surplus from its annual budget. $5.5 million will likely go to raises and bonuses of city employees and $6.6 to capital improvement projects, while a small amount will go to Affordable Housing needs.
The Charlottesville City Council has been a hotbed of Marxist activity for many years and was particularly vocal in 2017 following the permit granted to the Unite the Right organization for a protest of the Robert E. Lee monument. Photo courtesy NBC29.
This surplus of funds has likely played into the Council’s decision to not accept earlier bids placed to purchase the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson offered by groups wishing to display them in Virginia at park and museum locations.
In early December, the Council voted after midnight to donate the Robert E. Lee statue to a local African American museum, have it melted down and re-cast for a statue for their facility. Opposition has arisen following this decision. Virginia Commonwealth Senator Bryce Reeves took exception to the blatant violation of state law by the Charlottesville City Council and fired off a rebuttal letter calling them out for violating the law.
A “Bid-Protest Letter” was submitted by Dygert, Wright, Hobbs & Hernandez, PLC of Charlottesville on December 14 on behalf of the Trevilian Station Battlefield and Ratcliffe Foundation which wanted to purchase the monuments and placed independent bids on them. both rejected by Charlottesville City Council. The bids were for $50,000 and $100,000. Trevilian wanted the statues for their battlefield exhibit, while Ratcliffe Foundation stated that they want the statues for a Southwest Virginia Historical Monuments Trail at the home of J.E.B. Stuart.
In addition, Philip Andrew Hamilton, Republican Candidate for Virginia House, District 57, is attempting to raise funds for a law suit, a “Taxpayer Challenge” against the Charlottesville City Council, by having a resident of the city declare that donating the General Lee statue is a waste of money.
Unite the Right Rally
Decisions by the Charlottesville City Council have occurred alongside the recent trials of Jason Kessler (Rally organizer), Richard Spencer (Alt-Right Leader), Christopher Cantwell and ten others in which the defendants were charged with financial liability in a civil suit surrounding the death and wounding of students a Lee monument protest rally in 2017. The jury recently awarded the plaintiffs a $26 million settlement in this case.
Doubtless, Marxist-inspired re-placing of the Stonewall Jackson monument in Los Angeles as well as the melting down of the Robert E. Lee statue that was voted upon were a vengeful, anti-American and Marxist-inspired move of continued actions against Southern heritage supporters and others who value American traditions. Many non-Confederate statues are also being removed across the US.
Lisa Carol Rudisill, M.T.S., is a magna cum laud graduate of NC State University and Liberty University where she earned a Master of Theology. She writes novels about her family history during the Civil War in North and South Carolina. She is a freelance writer, editorialist and a contributor to The Standard newspaper.
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