VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to approve the relocation of a Confederate monument that was once on display city property.
It's known as the "Princess Anne Confederate Monument."
The new proposal will transfer ownership of the monument to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which plans on keeping the statue in the city in a private family cemetery of a third party.
Following its installation in 1905, the monument remained on display near the old courthouse at the Municipal Center campus for over a century. That area is where slave auctions used to take place.
However, the statue has been in storage since July 2020, when City Council unanimously voted to take it down.
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Virginia Beach takes down Confederate monument
Prior to the council members’ decision to remove the statue, groups for and against keeping it publicly displayed voiced their concerns. The Historic Preservation Commission argued for the monument to remain in place, stating that it could serve as a reminder to learn from mistakes made in history.
“It's a hard story to tell: The good, the bad, the ugly of the Confederate monument and what it means to different groups," said a person with the commission.
On the other hand, the Democrats of America held a protest to voice their concerns about the monument, which they described as “a grave insult to the living.”
Under the new proposal, the city will be responsible for the monument’s relocation and reassembly, but they won’t pay for any maintenance or repairs.
