On December 7th, 2021, during the eightieth anniversary of the Japanese empire’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to donate the “After Appomattox” statue of General Robert Edward Lee to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Other organizations, such as the Ratcliffe Foundation and the Trevilian Station Battlefiled Foundation, placed bids to purchase both the General Lee and the General Stonewall Jackson statues.
However, former Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker, and the rest of the members of the city council, were not interested in sending the statues to the organizations with the highest financial bids, rather they were interested in sending them to institutions that would either send the statues to California or to have them melted down. The General Stonewall Jackson statue was sent to the LAX Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles, California, a state that does not offer any monument protection laws.
On March 6th, 2022, the Jefferson School American Heritage Central formally announced their “Swords in Plowshares” program, which is a pet project that the Charlottesville City Council members personally approve of, that is raising money to melt down the General Lee statue. The Charlottesville City Council know that they cannot spend money to have monuments and statues melted down, so they are working around the 2020 monuments law, that was passed by the Virginia General Assembly, by having a private entity raise money to melt down a piece of work that was once commissioned by philanthropist Paul Goodloe McIntire.
Attorneys Jock Yellott, Executive Director of the Monument Fund of Charlottesville, Scott Braxton Puryear, who is currently representing the family of General Ambrose Powell Hill who have filed an appeal regarding the monument of their family member that was removed from Richmond, and Ralph Main have been representing the Ratcliffe Foundation and the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation, that have filed a “re-bid measure” against the city of Charlottesville.
On Thursday February 16th, 2023, at 9:30AM, the trial for this court case will be heard and the “Swords Into Plowshares” supporters will be out in force to try to fill the courtroom of the Charlottesville Circuit Court. To counter these “Cultural Marxists” I am holding a rally outside of the Charlottesville Circuit Court at 8:00AM, with historian Ann McLean, Campbell County School Board member Ann Parker, and other patriots for my “Rally To Support The Rule Of Law! Don’t Melt Down Our Virginia History!” I have enlisted Nelson County Republican Committee member Richard Bell to make signs for the rally. The Republican Woman of Greater Richmond may help our efforts by mailing checks to Richard Bell at:
Monetary donations will be used will be used for signs such as “Save America’s History”, “Don’t Melt Down Virginia’s Historical Monuments”, and “What’s Next? Melting Down Thomas Jefferson”?
I appreciate your support and I hope to see some of the readers of "The Hamilton Press" at this rally to preserve our Virginian heritage!
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