DALEVILLE – The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors accepted a report by the Monuments and Memorials Committee but could not move forward with accepting or denying the committee’s recommendation since a public hearing must be held.
No date was set for a public hearing, as it is unclear where the monument can be placed since architectural drawings of the newly designed courthouse will not be available until March.
About 50 people attended the meeting last Tuesday, most to voice opposition to the committee’s recommendation to move the Confederate monument from the Botetourt County Courthouse entrance to somewhere within Courthouse Square.
During the public comment section, many who spoke stated they favor a referendum in November. “Let the citizens of Botetourt County decide what they want to do with their statue,” said one man.
Another speaker said not enough is known about the cost of moving the monument. A speaker from the Buchanan District said supervisors are caving to “woke culture” and a “Marxist regime” in Richmond. Woke culture is often used by conservatives in reference to people and ideas to fight injustice, especially racism. Speakers pointed out five counties in Virginia have the question on the November 2021 ballot.
Committee member Harriet Francis told the Board of Supervisors to keep the monument where it is. She believes the 20-foot obelisk is a memorial to county’s men who fought in the Civil War. Francis, who represented the Daughters of the Confederacy on the committee, said many people still living Botetourt County have relatives who fought in the war that started 160 years ago. “I am opposed, just opposed,” she said of the moving.
If the board follows the recommendation of the committee, the statue would be relocated within the grounds of the Botetourt County Courthouse Square. The square is county-owned property within the bounds of Main, Back and Roanoke streets and Botetourt Road (US 220) in Fincastle. The vote was 8-2. The dissenting members favored a site next to the Old Jail that fronts the courthouse parking lot on Main Street.
“There was a general consensus by the committee that a potentially appropriate placement of the monument be near the Botetourt County History Museum and that there should be a plaque to provide historical context to the monument,” the recommendation reads.
The report addressed county residents’ concerns that removing the obelisk would erase the memory of their ancestors who fought and died in the Civil War. The report states the committee is cognizant of how important veterans are to the community, as men and women from Botetourt County have fought in every conflict, from frontier wars to serving in today’s conflict zones.
“The committee is also cognizant of the challenges that slavery and its systemic aftermath have created for a segment of American society, including here in Botetourt County,” the report reads.
The committee stressed that the recommendation about the Confederate monument in no way intends to “disparage those veterans; and in no way meant to minimize the effect and after-effects of slavery.”
Last year, the Virginia General Assembly approved, and the governor signed, legislation directing local governments to assess the location of Confederate monuments on public property. The legislation granted Boards of Supervisors the authority to assess monuments on public property and to decide how to handle them, given the recent acrimony, the location of Confederate monuments specifically.
