Black History Museum Surveying Community on the Future of the Confederate Monuments

When the confederate monuments were removed they were given to the Black History Museum. The museum is now turning to the community to see the next steps.

The Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA) takes the responsibility of managing and having ultimate accountability for the disposition of the Confederate monuments very seriously. We are committed to ensuring the origin of these objects and their purpose are never forgotten: that is the glorification of those who led the fight to enslave African Americans and destroy the Union. We are likewise committed to the opportunities these monuments and our work related to them create: the opportunity to use the monuments as tools for education healing, and reconciliation as we deepen our understanding of an essential element of the American story: the expansion of freedom.

Together with our partner The Valentine, we are taking this time to be very intentional in the development of a collaborative process with mission aligned organizations and the community at large to ensure we capture the broadest cross-section of opinions and ideas about ways to ensure the items that were created and intended to glorify and ultimately perpetuate the ideology of those who led the fight to enslave African Americans, are no longer used in that context and instead can be positioned to create social value essential to overcoming the racism and discrimination they helped perpetuate.

We invite you to share your thoughts and opinions.

You can take the short survey here.

If you want to relive the removal of some of the notable statues.

• Stonewall Jackson
• Confederate Soldiers and Sailors
• Vindicatrix
• J.E.B. Stuart