The Confederate Monument in
Portsmouth, Virginia
Portsmouth is an independent city in southeast Virginia and across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk. As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,915. It is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area.
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Naval M ...
, was built between 1876 and 1881. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
(NRHP) in 1997.
[
The monument is a 35-foot ]obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
of North Carolina granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
. It is located at the town square of Portsmouth, on Court Street at the corner of High Street. Also facing on the town square are the Trinity Episcopal Church dating from 1828 and the Portsmouth Courthouse
Portsmouth Courthouse, also known as Norfolk County Courthouse, is a historic courthouse building located at Portsmouth, Virginia, United States. It was built in 1846, and is a one-story with basement, Greek Revival style brick building. It meas ...
dating from 1846, which are also NRHP-listed.[ an]
''Accompanying photo at Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission''
/ref>
It was erected by the Ladies Memorial Aid Association of Portsmouth, Virginia, which was founded in 1866 with one purpose "being the erection of a monument to the Confederate dead of Portsmouth and Norfolk County." The design was by topographical engineer Charles E. Cassell
Charles Emmett Cassell (April 26, 1838 – August 29, 1916) was a Baltimore, Maryland-based architect.
Biography
He was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and trained as a naval architect. He received a degree in engineering from the University of Vi ...
.[
The cornerstone was laid in 1876.The monument's capstone was not placed until 1881, and the monument as a whole was not completed until 1893.][
The four cast white bronze figures that surround the obelisk, including their heads and facial features, are largely generic.][
]
Calls for removal and relocation
In August 2017, in the wake of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville Virginia where many white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
groups protested the removal of Confederate monuments, mayor of Portsmouth John Rowe called for the movement of the monument from its current location. Mayor Rowe's proposed new site for the monument is nearby Cedar Grove Cemetery where many Confederate soldiers are buried. Shortly after the mayor's announcement, a Change.org
Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...
petition amassing over 30,000 signatures went viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
started by a local Virginia man named Nathan Coflin to have the current monument replaced by a statue of Portsmouth native rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
artist and businesswoman, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott
Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971), better known as Missy Elliott or Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She embarked on her music career with R&B girl group Sista in the earl ...
. This petition received national attention in many publications such as ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'', CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
, ''People
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'' and ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine.
On June 10, 2020 the Confederate soldier statues were beheaded by sledgehammer and one was toppled by Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
protesters as the Police Department watched. A brass band played. One protester, Chris Green, was hit by the falling statue and sustained life-threatening injuries while standing near other people below it.
Removal
On July 28, 2020, the Portsmouth City Council voted unanimously to remove the monument. On August 26, 2020, crews officially began removing the monument from Olde Towne and moving it to a undisclosed storage area.
See also
*
References
External links
Conservation of the Portsmouth Confederate Monument
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
1870s establishments in Virginia
1876 establishments in Virginia
1876 sculptures
American Civil War sites
Buildings and structures completed in 1876
Buildings and structures in Portsmouth, Virginia
Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Virginia
Granite sculptures in Virginia
Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Portsmouth, Virginia
Obelisks in the United States
Vandalized works of art in Virginia
Statues removed in 2020
Monuments and memorials in Virginia removed during the George Floyd protests