GOP Senate candidate calls Confederate monuments ‘symbols of hope,’ says ‘we learn from our mistakes’

The Hill logoGOP New Hampshire Senate candidate retired Gen. Don Bolduc said during a campaign-style gathering earlier this month that he believed statues of Confederate soldiers are “symbols of hope” and “moving forward.”

“We forgave. We created this thing called Reconstruction. We moved forward. We honor those that fought against us as opposed to dishonoring them. We gave them life back, opportunity back in order for them to change, in order to unify our country. These decisions were made for a reason. Statues were put up for a reason,” Bolduc can be seen saying in video of the event.

The comments come amid a national debate over removing Confederate statues, spurred by recent protests over racial injustice. The House is slated to vote next week on legislation to remove from the Capitol statues of people who served in the Confederacy or who worked to uphold slavery, and lawmakers from both parties have expressed an openness to renaming Army bases that were named after Confederate officers. Continue reading.

Latest legal hurdle to removing Confederate statues in Virginia: The wishes of their long-dead white donors

A controversial statue of Robert E. Lee will remain in place in Richmond, the former capital of the American Confederacy –- at least temporarily.

On June 18, a judge extended an injunction barring the removal of the Confederate general’s statue, stating that “the monument is the property of the people,” not the state of Virginia, which seeks its removal.

In early June Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam vowed to dismantlethe prominent Lee statue in Richmond, the state capital, following sustained, nationwide protests over police brutality and racism. That plan was blocked by a 10-day court injunction – now extended through late July – based on the petition of a man whose ancestor, Otway Allen, gave Virginia the land the the sculpture sits on. Continue reading.

Richmond judge extends order barring removal of Lee statue indefinitely

Washington Post logoRICHMOND, VIRGINIA — A judge has indefinitely extended an injunction that prevents the governor from removing the iconic statue of Robert E. Lee from state property on Monument Avenue, giving opponents more time to prove they have standing to challenge the removal.

Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced June 4 that he would take down the Lee statue, which towers 60 feet over Richmond’s grandest residential boulevard, and put it in storage. The action was partly in response to ongoing demonstrations over police brutality against African Americans nationwide, which in Richmond have focused on the city’s extensive Confederate iconography.

On June 8, Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo granted a temporary injunction to block the state from taking down the 130-year-old statue, responding to a lawsuit filed by a descendant of the couple who signed the deed giving land for the monument to the state. Continue reading.