Members of the House of Delegates are considering a bill that would remove the last remaining Confederate statues in Capitol Square.
A statue honoring Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is so close to the House chamber, you can see it from the windows of the Capitol. For now, anyway. That won't be the case if the House approves a Senate bill to remove it along with two other statues honoring the Lost Cause.
Delegate Lee Ware is a Republican from Powhatan says lawmakers should not erase history.
"Studying this era is vitally important for our children of all races precisely because it was a complicated and tragic and therefore a great era in our shared history," Ware says.
Complicated? Delegate Michelle Maldonado is a Democrat from Prince William who took to the floor to respond to the use of that term.
"It is offensive as an African American woman in this chamber to hear people say the history is complicated," Maldonado says. "Yeah, it's complicated. But let's be clear that the complication isn't because people who look like me helped people who didn't look like me enslave my people, be brutal with my people, rape my people."
The bill to remove the three Confederate statues from Capitol Square has already passed the Senate and is currently awaiting action in the House Rules Committee.
