A Monumental Change

It Is Time

 Original cover painting by Jason Bennett

by Charles McGuigan 06.2020

It may not have been “the shot heard round the world,” but it was an excruciatingly long and violent video seen and heard by billions of people across the Earth. Every single one of them heard the pleas of a black man who was killed in the most violent of manners by a white man who was supposed to protect and serve him. That, while three other police officers stood by and did nothing to stop the brutality, which they could have done any time during those eternal nine minutes before George Floyd gave up the ghost. Everything is now changed for good and all; there is no going back. George Floyd’s murder shone a retina-scorching light on racial inequities that have dominated our nation since even before its birth. Those who refuse to see them were already blind.

“It had all the hallmarks of a modern day lynching, and it was horrific,” State Senator Jennifer McClellan told me. “Having done quite a bit of work on uncovering and elevating the stories of lynching in Virginia, that was my first reaction. Add that to the list.”

It’s quite a long list, too. From 1882 through 1968 alone, about 3,500 black men were lynched in this country, the overwhelming majority of those murders, about 80 percent of them, committed in southern states. It all rose out of the Jim Crow era, when white southerners decided African-Americans should remain dehumanized, and essentially enslaved. These white men resented their terrific defeat at the hands of the Union, and scorned a peaceable Reconstruction. Instead of accepting the equality of all human beings, they reaffirmed their commitment to the lunatic notion of white supremacy. That’s when the Confederate statues started springing up like a bumper crop of poison mushrooms throughout the South like those on Monument Avenue, which are soon to be gone (temporary court injunctions aside). For there has been a palpable awakening of the American psyche since the sadistic slaughter of George Floyd.

“I went out to a couple of different protests on Sunday, and then I went to the march on Monday from the Capitol to the Lee monument,” said Senator McClellan. “There was a genuine shift in the air. This is not just, ‘We’re going to rise up and then go back to life as normal.’ It really feels like we’re going to rise up and commit to change.”

Throughout the country, and around the world, millions are demanding justice. Among the protesters’ rallying cries is “Black Lives Matter”, which is even the new name of a section of the street the White House in Washington D.C. faces. The protests have spread from cities to suburbs and even out to the rural reaches of America.

“Part of it was the commitment and passion I saw on a wide variety of faces, whether it was college students or boomers,” Senator McClellan said. “It’s hard to describe. It is a different energy than I have felt at any other time before. Something’s different, and you can feel it and you can see it. It’s the beginning of real change, and we’ve just got to keep the momentum up.”

Back in March, the Virginia General Assembly adopted bills that permit localities to remove Confederate memorials at their discretion. This legislation allows municipalities to “remove, relocate, contextualize, cover or alter” these monuments. By April, Governor Ralph Northam had signed the bills into law.

The adoption of these bills came more than three years after the Charlottesville City Council voted to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson from municipal parks, which was in response to the bloody massacre of nine African American congregants in the basement of a church in South Carolina (this is important to keep in mind for the end of this story). That vote by council in Charlottesville spurred one of the most hideous moments in Virginia’s 21st century history. On a hot August night three years ago, alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and right-wing militias descended on Charlottesville like a plague. At night, they carried torches, bleating racist and anti-Semitic slogans, while wielding semiautomatic weapons, and waving the Confederate battle flag alongside the flag of the Third Reich and the coopted Gadsen flag of the tea party.

The following day would see even more mayhem and the vilest kind of vitriol, along with carnage. A white supremacist named James Alex Fields, Jr. revved the engine of his car, dropped it into gear, and drove head on into a crowd of counter-protesters. He murdered Heather Heyer, and injured 19 other people. This neo-Confederate pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with 419 additional years for good measure.

As we talked about the removal of the Confederate statuary on Monument Avenue, Senator McLellan talked about other kinds of monuments. “This is a good first step to heal old wounds,” she said.  “But now, we’ve got to address the systemic monuments to white supremacy and Jim Crow.”

Which is exactly what people seem to be doing. “The first step, which I hope we’re taking now, is to really acknowledge and recognize and understand how systemic inequity has been built into education, government, healthcare, transportation, and justice,” said the Senator.

It will need to be a concerted effort, according to Senator McClellan. “I think every individual and every organization, whether it’s government, business or non-profit—everybody needs to take a really good hard look, do some soul-searching, and say, ‘What am I doing to either address the systemic inequity or make it worse, whether if it’s intentional or not?’”

Already, corporations around the world are doing just that, as are individuals and communities of every size and description. But there needs to be more.

“There are some policy changes that many of us have been proposing for decades,” said Senator McClellan. “Some of them we passed this year, and we made a good start on education funding, and we’ve been making progress on access to healthcare. We made very little progress on criminal justice reform, but a lot of it got pushed off to study. There’s way more to be done on that. And those are things that need to happen at the local, state and federal levels. We need to make sure that all of that energy that we are seeing at the protests is sustained on legislation. Legislative action and doing that systemic change is a long process. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

We will also have to be willing to examine our own history, not the apologist version of it that has been foisted on the public for countless generations. “We really have to understand the history of our country and our Commonwealth,” the Senator said. “We are a government founded on the ideals of life, liberty and equality for everyone, but our actual founding, four hundred years ago, was a government and a colony and a system built by land-owning white men—land they stole, by the way—and built on a hierarchy with them at the top.”

Revisionist history is finally nothing more than a sort of brainwashing of the masses. “The reason our history has been glossed over is a very successful propaganda campaign of white supremacy,” said Senator McClellan. “Once you dehumanize, you can get away with it, and look at a person as property. And we see that rhetoric today with the immigrants.”

Later, standing on a median strip, facing the Lee statue, the base of which was festooned with punk-pretty tags and slogans, Senator Jennifer McClellan told me something that didn’t surprise me.

“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for almost 20 years and today is the first time I‘ve ever set foot on that circle, just because everything it symbolized was so painful I would try to ignore it as much  as I could,” she said. “And I never realized how much of a burden that was until I heard it was coming down.” She smiled behind her facemask; I can tell by the way her eyes upturn. “To be out here and see kids taking graduation pictures up there, young families who are here for the history moment,” she said. “It is something to see because it’s the beginning of healing. But, we’ve got a long way to go and now we have to address the systemic inequity which is just as much a monument to white supremacy as this statue.”

Back in 2017, I interviewed Delegate Jeff Bourne for a profile piece featured on the cover of NORTH of the JAMES. During the course of that interview, he told me a story that has agitated me ever since.  Jeff, at the time, sported no beard. Most days that I saw him at Stir Crazy Café, he was clean-shaven, and dressed impeccably in a Navy blue blazer, crisp white shirt, rep tie, charcoal gray slacks. Tacked to the left lapel of his jacket was a brass and enamel pin depicting the great seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia. And he drove a late model BMW sports car. Jeff told me that on Saturdays he would sometimes travel up to the Lowe’s on Parham to purchase supplies for a home improvement project. Instead of his weekday dress, he might be wearing sweats, and his face might be cast with a shadow of stubble. He told me that once he crossed the line from Richmond into the county to our north, he might be pulled over by the local police. For no reason, other than being a black man dressed down and driving an expensive car. And it had happened on more than one occasion.  When I asked him if he had had “the talk” with his son, who was just four at the time, Jeff shook head. “No,” he said. “But I’m going to have to soon.”

During a recent interview with Jeff, I mentioned the incidents of him being pulled over for no reason, other than what appeared to be racial profiling. “My experiences were mild compared to the examples we’ve seen over the last decade or so,” Delegate Bourne said. I then asked if he has had “the talk” with his son.

“What I struggle with is finding the line between being brutally honest, but also communicating that reality to an eight-year-old,” said Delegate Bourne. “I mean we can have a much more mature conversation now. (Keep in mind, the child is just eight.) I’ve always had the conversation with my daughter, who’s much more mature. She’s going to be twelve in a couple of weeks. So having to explain to them about how things just aren’t the same for everyone is a very difficult proposition. Especially, when you’re trying to raise a young black boy who has become, throughout our history, seen as a threat or a threatening figure.”

During the recent protests about the use of excessive force by police, and the murder of African Americans, Delegate Bourne has been particularly taken by certain signs held aloft by black children.  “I’ve seen a bunch of pictures with a black kid holding up a sign that says, ‘When did I become a threat and not a baby?’  And it’s true, you see it all over, and that’s why I’m so encouraged by this moment in our history.”

It is unlike any other time Delegate Bourne has ever seen. “I think we are in a real watershed moment in our history,” he said. “We have squandered opportunities throughout our lives, but I think this one feels different to me. I think it’s harnessed an energy and a commitment to making the changes that need to be made in a lot of people.”

And it crosses lines of gender, religious belief and skin color. “I’ve had a lot of my friends who don’t necessarily share the same skin color as me say, ‘You know, the last week has changed my perspective on a lot of different things and opened my eyes to so many things I just wasn’t aware of,’” said Delegate Bourne. “So, I think if we can get there and continue down that path, we can make the changes that need to be made.”

Real change comes only with broad, sweeping policy changes.

“I am working as hard as I ever have in trying to develop a legislative package, along with some of my colleagues, about how we specifically deal from a policy perspective with the use of force and the police killings,” Delegate Bourne said. “And really try to bring more equity and fair policing practices and all of that because you know we’ve got to do something. And so we’re going to do as much as we can. We are going to put them in place.’

Virginia’s ever-growing Black Caucus is stalwart in its commitment to equity and justice.

“The Black Caucus has been firm in this proposition,” Delegate Bourne explained. “We don’t have permanent friends or enemies. We have permanent interests, and our interests lie in making sure that communities of color are treated equally and equitably under all the laws so that everyone truly can take advantage of opportunities that they have before them.”

What the world has seen since the barbaric murder of George Floyd is much more than a series of protests.

“It is an uprising,” Delegate Jeff Bourne said. “And I think the removal of the monuments are a piece of what is going on. They are very, very emblematic of the progress that we’re going to be able to make in very short order. You know, for years and years and years Richmond has struggled with what to do with the monuments, and they have resisted taking them down or doing anything else to them. And now you can see there is real movement to remove them, both the one that the state controls, and the other four, and I was super-pleased to see the unanimous voice of City Council saying we need to remove these.”

Second District Councilwoman Kim Gray, through a series of phone calls, was able to achieve the unanimity of the entire council body, which will formally vote July 6 on the issue.  Councilwoman Gray has an utterly unique perspective on both the monuments and the protests. For one thing, all the Confederate statuary, save for Matthew Fontaine Maury, reside in her district. And a good portion of some of the more violent protests have occurred in her district, much of it within hailing distance of her home.

“I’m at ground zero,” she told me. “I live near Abner Clay Park.”

The turmoil in the streets over the past couple weeks has had a direct impact on her life, and the lives of her neighbors and constituents.  “My youngest son, who is twelve, was in the house when all this stuff was happening downtown and there were plumes of tear gas in the neighborhood and smoke coming through our windows,” Councilwoman Gray recalled. “I’ve had him isolated because he’s very fragile because he has asthma. I had to make the decision Saturday to move him because of all the burning rubber, smoke and tear gas.”

Up until the point of this interview, she had not yet watched the entire nine-minute video that documents George Floyd’s murder. “My heart breaks for him and his family,” the Councilwoman said. “I could not finish watching the film. It just tears me apart to think that that could happen and that there were other officers who could have done something, who chose not to.”

A social activist herself, Councilwoman Gray understands the need to protest.  “Peaceful protests are always welcomed,” she said. But she takes issue with those who participate in violent and destructive activity. She mentioned Waller and Company Jewelers on Broad Street just a few blocks from her home. “They have been in business for 120 years,” she said. “They started off in the same neighborhood where my grandfather lived a hundred years ago. And they’re part of our fabric and our history.” Next, she mentioned a Jackson Ward dentist. “Dr. Randy Adams has served our community and our children as a dentist for over thirty years,” said Councilwoman Gray. “He specializes in seeing children with disabilities and special needs. He’s a needed resource for our children and our community, and his place was hit Friday night along with Waller. There was also an attempt to burn the Hippodrome and the 2C Apartments. Those two buildings are an important part of our Jackson Ward history, of Black Wall Street, of the Harlem of the South. We’ve been out there fighting people off because if you’re really about black lives and supporting black people, you don’t set fires in my historically black neighborhood and tear up black businesses.”

The 2nd District Councilwoman opposes this kind of behavior toward any business. “No businesses should be subjected to vandalism, fires, any of the things that are happening because we depend upon those investors, those people who come into our community,” she said. “We depend upon them. The Rite Aid Pharmacy serves all of the community around here. The Wells Fargo is the bank that many of my neighbors use.”

Some of the property damage caused more hardship to people who were already having a difficult time.  “Our bus service was shut down,” she said. “And there are so many people who could not get to work because a bus was set afire, and it was not safe to ride buses. So, I absolutely oppose violence on every level. I oppose vandalism and burning our buildings down. So absolutely not, I’m never in favor of that aspect of what I’ve been seeing in the past several days.”

When asked about the tear gas fired at a group of protesters on Monument Avenue more than twenty minutes before an 8 pm curfew, Councilwoman Gray said this: “I was subjected to tear gas out on Broad Street, and I know what it feels like. Definitely, someone made a big mistake in releasing that tear gas.”

Councilwoman Gray believes some of the problems we’ve seen in recent weeks are the result of a lack of balance.

“I always want to balance what I’m doing and what I’m saying with public safety and protection of our people,” she said. “It’s a delicate balance. And I think a lot of what we’re seeing right now with the tear gassing and the violence that’s happening in our communities and the vandalism is a result of not striking that balance very well, and not taking action against aggressive officers.”

She was quick to add: “There are many, many more-well behaved officers than there are aggressive ones. But it doesn’t matter when you’re the one encountering that bad one. It means nothing to know that there are really good ones out there. I hear a lot of talk about defunding the police, but I’ve been down here calling for the police and fire for their assistance when things are happening, and I know in those moments when you’re on your own and you don’t feel like anybody’s going to come to your rescue, it’s a very scary thing. And I think we need to take a breath and have a longer conversation about what our policing looks like, and to take a breath and see what happens.”

She talked about the two young police officers who were recently shot on Southside in what appeared to be an ambush. “They are recovering,” said the Councilwoman. “They’re improving. One of them was in surgery for seven hours, and he has several more surgeries ahead of him. These are rookie cops. They’re not the bad guys who are out here. They’re here to protect and serve us, they’re not the ones who are out here doing the evil things.”

Our conversation shifted back to the monuments. “I am here to represent the will of the people,” Councilwoman Gray said. “If the will of the people says, we need to remove them, I’m gonna do what the will of the people says. The monuments need to come down; they need to be removed.”

It’s odd how history sometimes comes full circle. Days after the decisive Union victory at Gettysburg, a baby by the name of John Mitchell, Jr. was born into slavery in Jackson Ward. He was a brilliant young man, a prolific writer, and a courageous activist. At the age of twenty-one he became editor of The Richmond Planet, an African American newspaper. He would later serve two terms as an alderman, representing Jackson Ward. Along with several other councilmen of the time, he vehemently opposed the erection of monuments to Confederate leaders. Here is what he wrote well over a century ago regarding the Civil War monuments in Richmond: “This glorification of States Rights Doctrine — the right of secession and the honoring of men who represented that cause will ultimately result in the handing down to generations unborn a legacy of treason and blood.”

Symbols of white supremacy and racism can inspire horrific acts of domestic terrorism. Consider the battle flag of the Confederacy, the stars and bars.

“This symbol of racial terror and racism was real enough to motivate someone to massacre nine people,” Rose Simmons told me during a telephone interview. “It carried enough power for him to embrace it and to murder nine innocent people.”

Among that group of innocent people known as the Emanuel Nine was Rose’s beloved father, Daniel L. Simmons.  Daniel was slain with eight other people who were attending a Bible study class in the basement of Emanuel Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A twenty-one year old white supremacist and neo-Confederate aimed a Glock 41 and fired hollow-point bullets into men and women, old and young, all the while shouting racial epithets.

“As I look back on it,” Rose said. “Actually next week will be the fifth year commemoration, as we say, of that horrible shooting. It’s been a journey is what it’s been.”

Her father, a disabled Army veteran and retired minister, earned a master’s degree in social work and later a doctor of divinity. He worked for years as a vocational rehabilitation specialist for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Here’s my father,” said Rose. “He went after the American dream. Not only did he seek or pursue it, he accomplished it, he achieved it. And fifty years after the end of the Civil Rights movement, he was gunned down in his retirement in the basement of a church, by a twenty-one year old, self-proclaimed, Confederate flag-waving, white supremacist.”

Rose’s grandparents were sharecroppers, the institution of slavery in a more modern era, and as a high school student in Columbia, she could not understand why the Confederate flag flew from a mast on the summit of the state capitol. This was in the late 1970s. “There were protests to get the flag removed, but it never came to pass, they could never do it,” she said.  “It took nine dead bodies in the basement of a church to spark the interest for that flag to be removed.”

Since that time, several Confederate statues have been taken down from public display and placed in museums. “That’s where they belong,” said Rose.

Rose told me she is encouraged to see the international protests against the cruel murder of George Floyd, and so many other African Americans slain by police. “I’m for it a hundred percent,” said Rose. “I don’t agree with the violence and the looting because that’s a low level mindset, and that’s not what the real protesters are out there for.”  

Rose Simmons loves American history, particularly the Civil War era, but she wants the statues off Monument Avenue.   “Not only am I glad to hear that they’re going to be removed,” she said. “I want to be there when the statues come down.”

Maybe the age of monuments to flawed human beings has finally passed, furled and forgotten, to make way for an avenue of gardens that glorifies our diversity, mirrored by the offerings of the Earth in the form of native plants and trees that bear flowers and fruit to inspire and to feed us, while capturing carbon to protect us.