Virginia saw a flood of efforts to remove Confederate monuments and iconography starting in 2020.
And now, members of the General Assembly are telling the Lost Cause to get lost. On Tuesday, the Senate of Virginia passed a bill to eliminate tax exempt status for Confederate heritage organizations. The bill was introduced by Delegate Alex Askew, a Democrat from Virginia Beach.
"It's a bill, we remove tax exemptions for United Daughters of the Confederacy," Askew says. The reason we put it in was to make sure that our code matches our values."
The Senate version of the bill was introduced by Senator Angelia Williams Graves, a Democrat from Norfolk. She celebrated a victory for her bill while walking past a statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, one of three Confederate statues still in Capitol Square.
"Can I ask you about your reaction to the fact that Stonewall Jackson is standing right over there," reporter Michael Pope asks.
"That he is," the Senator replies. "You know, you can't defeat every giant every day. So, we’ll live to fight and see what happens."
So, the United Daughters of the Confederacy may be about to lose their tax exempt status. But, until lawmakers pass a bill to remove Stonewall Jackson, he’ll continue to occupy a prominent spot facing the north entrance of the Capitol.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
