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West Virginia House bill to protect controversial monuments draws public opposition

The Stonewall Jackson statue on the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds in Charleston. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

CHARLESTON — A bill that would provide protections for monuments, including those honoring Confederate soldiers, resulted in large turnout by opponents who believe the bill protects and glorifies racism.

The House Government Organization Committee held a virtual public hearing Wednesday afternoon on House Bill 2174, the West Virginia Monument and Memorial Protection Act. The bill is on second reading today in the House of Delegates and up for passage Friday.

HB 2174 prohibits the relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, rededicating of statues, monuments, memorials, schools, streets, bridge, and parks named for historical military figures, units, and actions. The bill’s prohibitions cover everything from the French and Indian War in the early 1700s to Operation: Iraqi Freedom in 2004. The bill protects monuments for labor movement leaders, black civil rights leaders, native American history, natural and manmade disasters.

The bill specifically applies to public property owned by the state, counties, and municipalities. Monuments would only be able to be moved upon petition to the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office. The bill includes criminal penalties for moving monuments without approval, making it a misdemeanor with a up to a $500 fine and up to six months in jail.

Supporters of the bill claim it helps preserve history for future generations. They also claim the bill creates a streamlined way to petition for the removal of monuments and have those petitions evaluated by an unbiased group of historians.

“In terms of the bill itself, it actually provides a mechanism for the public … or an organization or entity … to petition for the removal of a monument,” said House Government Organization Committee Chairman Brandon Steele in explaining the bill to one of the virtual public hearing participants.

Opponents, however, consider the bill a way to protect monuments to West Virginians who fought on the side of the Confederacy in the American Civil War. More than 24 people were slated to speak, and no speaker came out in favor of the bill.

“The NAACP contends that House Bill 2174’s main purpose is to protect the statues and memorials across the state honoring Confederate generals and soldiers from being removed off of public property,” said Owens Brown, state president of the NAACP. “Many of these Confederate statues were erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights movement to promote white supremacy. These monuments and memorials are dedicated to the Confederate States of America.”

West Virginia’s history with the Civil War is complicated. The state was founded at the stroke of a pen by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 as a Union state after the Reformed Government of Virginia escaped to Wheeling and later created the new state of West Virginia. At the same time, many West Virginians also fought on the side of the Confederacy in a war between Northern and Southern states over the question of black slavery.

General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is often cited as an example of this complicated history. The Clarksburg native has been celebrated throughout West Virginia history for his battlefield exploits before his death. A former U.S. Army officer and Virginia Military Institute instructor, Jackson decided to fight for his then-Virginian home in the Civil War. The Jacksons were also slaveholders.

Today, there are dozens of monuments, streets, and schools named for Jackson. The grounds of the Capitol include a statue erected to Jackson and a bust of Jackson is in the lower rotunda of the State Capitol Building. Charleston native Howard Swint has led a multi-year effort to get the Stonewall Jackson statue removed from the Capitol grounds to no avail.

“I ask as supporters of the legislation today; do you too stand to benefit in your own way with your constituency? Does this play to your base,” Swint asked. “If so, then let it be known you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with hardened white supremacists who organize for personal gain their un-Christian and un-American causes and that your vote will actually advance these same dark causes into the 21st century.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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