Supervisors to discuss Confederate statue

Published 3:36 pm Thursday, July 2, 2020

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The decision on what to do with the Confederate Soldier statue in front of the Lunenburg County Courthouse will go before the Lunenburg County Board of Supervisors Thursday, July 9 at 6 p.m.

The discussion was included as part of the board’s regular monthly meeting agenda after Rev. Wiley and Carole Wallace sent a letter to the board asking that the monument be moved to another location.

The statue was placed in front of the courthouse in 1968 along with a German howitzer cannon. The monument was relocated from the Victoria Town Square where he was originally placed in 1916.

Farmville’s Town Council recently made the decision to remove its Confederate Soldier statue for safety reasons following incidents of protestors attacking similar statues in other cities. Virginia had more than 220 Confederate statues and markers, more than any other state in the nation before statues began to be removed by towns and protestors the past several weeks.

“It doesn’t convey equality for all because of what the Confederacy fought for and I think that is what needs to be remembered and put in an appropriate location, but doesn’t need to be remembered in front of the courthouse where equal justice needs to be meted out each and every day for all the citizens of our county,” Carole Wallace said.

Wallace said at least one supervisor has already expressed support for moving the statue.

Attendees to the meeting are asked to maintain six feet of space at all times in order to meet social distancing requirements.