HK Edgerton’s response to the the following excerpted news report from June, 2022:
“RICHMOND, Va. — A prominent Confederate statue that stood in Richmond for more than 100 years before protesters tore it down is back on display for the public…The Valentine museum on East Clay Street will unveil their temporary exhibit showcasing the Davis statue to the public at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. The statue is on loan from Richmond’s Black History Museum for six months. Valentine Museum Director Bill Martin said they had lengthy conversations on how to exactly display the statue. The team decided to display Davis the same way the public last saw it — on its side and covered in graffiti.
"We have other objects in our collection that address the history of racial oppression and Jim Crow laws here. We don't have as many powerful objects that really tell the real story of what happened here in the summer of 2020," said Christina Vida, the museum's curator of general collections. "We want to make our visitors when they come down they’re seeing a 2020 object."…Martin highlighted a survey of Richmonders that revealed 80% believed the Confederate statues should be displayed inside of a museum. In 2020, a spokesperson for the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans told CBS 6 that a museum setting would help the statues be protected and preserved. Davis’s connection to the museum and the Downtown Richmond building spans generations. Martin said the statue is returning to the place where it was created. “We know that Jefferson Davis came to the small building to be measured. We have detail drawings and measurements of his face,” he explained.
Valentine created sculptures that were displayed all over north and south during the Civil War era that included strong messages about what was happening in Richmond. Martin said those messages were reflected of what is now described as the “Lost Cause.””
Dear Ms. Lunelle,
I have many questions about how these people took possession of this Cenotaph, and what gives this racist organization the right to deem a great man like President Davis a “racist”.
The Davis family and the entire South should be up in arms about this criminal display. It ranks right up there with the hanging of the Southern Cross at Gettysburg College.
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