The Charlottesvillehistoric monument controversy is the public discussion on how the community of Charlottesville should respond to protesters who complain that various local monuments are racist. The controversy began before 2016 when protest groups in Charlottesville asked the city council for the localremoval of Confederate monuments and memorials. Other monuments became part of the controversy, including those of Thomas Jefferson due to his ownership of slaves and those of Lewis and Clark for their advocacy of white colonists over Native Americans. In 2016 when the Charlottesville city council responded by voting to make changes including to remove some statues and change the names of some parks. Following this, counter protesters filed a lawsuit to keep the statues.
On 4 June 2017 attorneys representing the decedents of confederate soldiers opposed the renaming of the parks. In June 2017 the city council voted to rename the parks. Jackson Park became "Justice Park". Lee Park became "Emancipation Park". In July 2018 the city council voted 4-1 to rename the parks again. Emancipation Park became "Market Street Park" and Justice Park became "Court Square Park". City council members voting to change the names said that the idealistic names did not fit when the confederate statues remained in the park. Also they reported to have survey results in favor of the new names. The city council member in opposition said renaming the parks would lead the community to avoid having necessary conversation.
Payne v. City of Charlottesville was the lawsuit filed by advocates for preservation of the monuments. The lawsuit paused removal of the statues and argued against various alterations.
The Unite the Right rally was an event on August 11–12, 2017 in Charlottesville organized in protest of attempts to remove monuments in Charlottesville. The event drew international media attention and included violence including a death.
Response
In October 2016 an report by city staff in Charlottesville estimated that the cost of removing the statues could be $700,000. At the time this amount of money was large enough to be a factor in making a decision about moving the statues. In May 2017 Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer wrote to explain why he, as one of 5 members of city council, voted with the minority in a 3-2 decision to keep the statue in place. He explained that removing the statue would lead to people forgetting the racist history of the community. By keeping the statue in place he hoped that the community could reinterpret it from being a symbol of racial oppression to a memorial for remembering the struggle to overcome oppression.
