Charlottesville Votes to Sell Lee Statue, Debate Continues

Robert E. Lee statue in Lee Park / Photo: Cville dog / Wikimedia Commons

Charlottesville City Council voted 3-2 on Monday to sell to the highest bidder the Robert E. Lee statue that has been the subject of so much controversy.  In February, Council had voted by the same margin to remove the monument from Lee Park – a controversial vote that spurred a lawsuit against the City Council, limiting its action for now.  WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini reports.

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3:48

MAYOR MIKE SIGNER: Okay. Good evening everyone. Calling this meeting of Charlottesville City Council to order.

Three main options for disposing of the Lee statue were on the table before City Council on Monday evening: auction; competitive bid; or donating the statue to a government or non-profit entity.

Ben Doherty is a supporter of the removal of the statue. At the beginning of the meeting, he expressed his frustration about how slowly things have moved, in his view.

BEN DOHERTY: You may give excessive weight to the misguided legal arguments presented by the group of Confederate romanticists in their lawsuit against the city. These are all excuses. Respect the 3-2 vote of the City Council and work with your colleagues to move forward as quickly as possible in removing this racist statue from our midst. Thank you.

The lawsuit he refers to was filed in March by the Monument Fund and other plaintiffs, including war veterans, or people related to the statue’s sculptor Henry Schrady, or to Paul McIntire, who granted the statue to the city. The plaintiffs allege that the city violated the Code of Virginia section that protects war memorials, and the terms according to which McIntire granted the parks and memorials to the city. While it might not be liked by removal supporters, the lawsuit has to be taken into account, as City Council member Kathleen Galvin reminded the audience.

KATHLEEN GALVIN: The next step, I believe, will be a public hearing on the plaintiffs’ temporary injunction request. In the meantime, Council cannot remove the statue until a decision is made about the injunction. Council can also not move the statue until the case about moving the statue is decided in court. No one knows what the time frame is.

What they could do for now though was vote on removal and renaming plans. Councilor Kristin Szakos reads the motion, agreed upon in a 3-2 vote:

KRISTIN SZAKOS: The City of Charlottesville will issue a Request For Bids for sale of the statue and will advertise this RFB -- Request For Bids -- widely, including to organizations responsible for sites with historic or academic connection to Robert E. Lee or the Civil War.

Some of the criteria are that…

SZAKOS:  The statue will not be displayed to express support for any particular ideology; the display of the statue will preferably be in an educational, historic or artistic context. If no responsive proposals are received, Council may consider donation of the statue to an appropriate venue.

As for the second motion of the night, they also voted unanimously to hold a contest to select a new name for the park.

Charles Weber is a Charlottesville attorney, a former Republican candidate for the City Council, and a plaintiff in the case. As a military veteran, he has a special interest in preserving war memorials.

CHARLES WEBER: I just think war memorials are very special monuments to those who actually have to go and do the fighting; that they're not necessarily political statements, they're just sort of a tribute to the people who did it. “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee were military men and fought the war, they were not the politicians.

In particular, Weber points out that the lawsuit is about keeping elected officials accountable:

WEBER: I think all of us, on both sides of that debate, the political debate, have a vested interest in making sure that our elected officials don't violate the law in pursuing a political agenda, so in that regard I think this lawsuit is fairly universal.

Author and human rights activist David Swanson -- who supports the City Council’s decision -- sees it in a different light.

DAVID SWANSON: Any legal restriction that purports to deny the city that right should be challenged, and should be overturned if necessary. A locality ought to be able to decide what it wants to memorialize in its public spaces. There ought not to be a ban on removing anything related to wars any more than a ban on removing anything related to peace. What a prejudice to put in place!

This article and podcast appeared on WMRA.org. 
Download the podcast on Through Gallo Eyes.

Imagine, Create, Innovate: Tom Tom Festival's 6th Year

Graeme Black Robinson, from The Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, shows to children how to be a puppeteer. /
Photo: Marguerite Gallorini

It’s billed as a week of innovation and art, with Charlottesville itself as the canvas.  The sixth annual Tom Tom Founders Festival is happening this week in Charlottesville. WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini has the story.

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3:42

[Crowd chatting around Irish street music]

Paul Beyer, the festival’s founder, can definitely provide what you might call the elevator pitch for the event.

PAUL BEYER: Tom Tom is a time where I think Charlottesville really shines. We like to celebrate our local entrepreneurs, our local founders, our local civic leaders and we also try to invite the nation – increasingly – the nation to come to Charlottesville and check out what is going on here. There will be 300 hundred speakers at Tom Tom this year, 60 bands, 65 venues, over 150 events – many of them like tonight are completely free.

And what do all these events have in common?  Associate director Celia Castleman explains.

CELIA CASTLEMAN: The goal is to connect collaborators with one another, and to leave legacies, so the collaborations that people find amongst each other, and make and discover, will then turn into something sustainable. We love the idea of having speakers come and really spend time with our community.

This year, some of those speakers include New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker, U.S. Senator Mark Warner, co-founder and CEO of CODE2040 Laura Weidman Powers, and many others from the arts, science, and the environment.

Two key words that capture the essence of Tom Tom -- community and innovation. Steve Plaskon attended a session called “Innovation in Education” on Tuesday night.

STEVE PLASKON: Being associate professor in the Curry School, I am really interested in educational innovation. So I hope to get out of this just some sense of what the youth of America are doing right now, what is happening locally. I hope to be energized by this.

Kristen Jamison, Assistant Professor of Teaching at UVa and Director of The Loop Center for Social and Emotional Development, emphasized the need for more engaging education:

KRISTEN JAMISON: If the instruction is not engaging, and creative, if it does not involve movement, if it does not involve intrigue, then a lot of time is lost and wasted. Really it’s about merging the idea of quality with engagement and interest.

To get younger attendees engaged, Tom Tom showcases workshops including one featuring secrets from the art of puppetry. It was staged at the Paramount Theater by Graeme Black Robinson and Michelle Urbano, from the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia.

[Extract from a play performed by The Mermaid Theater]

GRAEME BLACK ROBINSON: It’s great for us to not only get the kids to see a professional puppetry at a young age, but for them to actually get their hands on the puppets, and to realize that it’s basically playing with toys, it’s a really great sort of hands-on experience with theater that they get to have at a young age.

[Sound of puppetry workshop]

All this creativity and invention require fuel  -- so food is another important feature. Many of the city’s local restaurants are participating in the 'Farm to Table Restaurant Week' during which they highlight a local ingredient. Citizen Burger Bardecided to highlight more than one:

KATE ELLWOOD: This year we’re doing one called the home town burger. So we are using local cheese from Mountain View Farm, and then mushrooms are out in Nelson County from “a. m. FOG” mushrooms,  and our beef is five miles down the road, from Timbercreek Farm, it’s grass-fed grass-finished.

That’s the venue’s general manager Kate Ellwood, who is also attending some of the music events:

ELLWOOD: I plan on going to Porchella, and Belmont, for all the music acts, so that sounds really fun.

Conveniently, the festival’s website has a 72-hour weekend itinerary for those who could not attend the week days.

The sixth annual Tom Tom Founder's Festival continues through Sunday, April 16.

This article and podcast appeared on WMRA.org.