Virginia Begins Removal of Confederate Statues from Richmond's Capitol Square
Virginia crews remove Confederate statues from Capitol Square in Richmond, a process state Sen. Mike Jones says began around 2018.
Work crews in Richmond, Virginia, have begun the physical removal of Confederate statues from Capitol Square, the public park and civic campus that houses the state government. The monuments being dismantled depict Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, Confederate General and former Governor William Smith, and Confederate Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire.
State Senator Mike Jones, a Democrat, was present as workers secured the statues with chains and heavy machinery, loading them onto trucks. He described the moment as the culmination of a long campaign. "It's a long journey that started in 2019, actually probably 2018, to try and get the right as a locality to decide the fate of the Confederate monuments that were in the city of Richmond," Jones said.
Jones framed the removals as a deliberate statement about the values the state wishes to project. "Monuments, as I've always said, they point, they're symbols, they point to something beyond themselves," he explained. "Is this what the Commonwealth is about? Is this where we want to direct people to? And it's not."
The senator added that the decision reflects a collective choice about identity and direction. "We have a right to say this is how we wish to be seen as a Commonwealth and even as a city," Jones said. "That doesn't match up with who we are and where we are in this season and where I hope we're going as a country and a Commonwealth."
The removal operation marks a significant step in the ongoing national reckoning over public memorials to the Confederacy.