Howitzer Monument on VCU Grounds Pulled Down Last Night

Last night in the rain, protesters decided they had enough of a Confederate monument on VCU grounds and tore down the Richmond Howitzer monument. Known by many current and former VCU students as variations of tampon man and Q-tip man.

The picture above is from Encyclopedia Virginia. It includes details on the sign you see in the foreground. It appears that this statue has had issues before.

The sculpture was unveiled on December 13, 1892, but this photograph of the monument was taken around 1900. A sign next to the statue, placed there at some unknown date, seems to indicate that the proper respect was not being shown by the local citizenry. The Richmond Howitzer Association has offered a $10 reward “for the arrest of any one throwing rocks into or trespassing on this park.”

You can find more information on the Richmond Howitzers also on Encylopedia Virginia.

Virginia Mercury has an excellent article on the white supremacist speech that was at the monument’s unveiling.

“Slavery in the South, unlike Oriental bondage, Roman servitude, and feudal villainage, was not the subjection of equals, differing only in opportunity, but the subordination of one extreme of humanity to the other; of the most abject to the most enlightened,” Leigh told the audience. “The real inequality of the races had made subordination prescriptive.”