Removing the confederate monument in front of the courthouse in Orange, VA

Removing the confederate monument in front of the courthouse in Orange, VA

Started
June 2, 2020
Signatures: 24,742Next Goal: 25,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Griffin Floyd

March 29, 2022 Addendum:

The confederate monument outside of Orange's courthouse must be removed: a partisan icon has no point in a place where impartial justice should be served. But it is important to note that there are options available outside of outright demolition. The statue's plaque is a relic of the ideology of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, which sought to rewrite the history of the Civil War by presenting the defeated South in the best possible light, painting the war as about state's rights rather than slavery. That plaque must be removed, but it could be replaced with a plaque that describes the true nature of the Civil War in remembering soldiers from Orange County.

The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park could provide a suitable relocation point for the confederate monument, with approval from the National Park Service: many of the NPS's civil war battlefields contain war monuments from a similar time period as the Orange statue that honor soldiers from the North and South, and the Wilderness Battlefield unit is in Orange County itself. Repurposing the monument as one to teach the history of the Civil War in an educational setting like a National Military Park, rather than one that idolizes the Confederacy, could be a way to preserve the monument in a place where it belongs.  

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I am petitioning for the confederate monument outside the Orange courthouse to be removed because it is a symbol of racial inequality, injustice and oppression. Having phrases emulating the soldiers of the confederacy—men who fought and killed to oppress other human beings—like “they fought for the right” (to keep black men and women enslaved) or “imitate their example” (of tyranny, injustice, and oppression) is perverse and contradicts our cherished American values like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

You may think that it is disrespecting the history of the civil war to remove this monument, but I ask you to think again: there are no monuments in Germany venerating the soldiers who died fighting for fascism and caused the death of millions, just as millions of slaves lived and died without freedom. Why should they exist here, in the land of the free?

Furthermore, it is perverse to have a monument to oppression outside of a courthouse, where justice is supposed to be served. Taking down this monument is a step toward correcting the wrongs of our predecessors, and it is through actions like this that we can forge a better world for those who follow us. I am calling on the Orange Town Council, and even the commonwealth of Virginia if need be, to remove this monument and better uphold American values. And in true Virginian fashion, Sic Semper Tyrannis! Because tyrants are what the confederates were.

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Signatures: 24,742Next Goal: 25,000
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Decision Makers

  • Commonwealth of Virginia
  • R. Mark JohnsonDistrict Supervisor
  • James K. WhiteDistrict Supervisor
  • S. Teel GoodwinDistrict Supervisor
  • Chairman James P. CrozierDistrict Supervisor