Confederate monument supporters in Portsmouth hire lawyers (VA)

[struggle4progress]

By Johanna Somers
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 5, 2015

... Fred D. Taylor, attorney for Bush & Taylor, P.C., said in the letter that his clients “stand as the successors” to various interest groups that “were tasked by their deed of 1929 to hold this monument in trust as a commission for the benefit of the descendants of all Confederate Veterans” ...

Portsmouth Councilman Mark Whitaker proposed removing Portsmouth’s Confederate monument ...

Cordell said she could not determine who owns the monument but said that the city owned the land beneath it ...

State law prohibits the removal of a war monument or memorial and makes it a felony to damage or remove one ...

http://hamptonroads.com/2015/08/portsmouth-residents-retain-counsel-protect-confederate-monument

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Jeez. Grow the fuck up and give it a rest, wouldja?

[struggle4progress]

2. The confederate monuments issues raise really interesting questions

Many, for example, are on courthouse grounds or (as in the Portsmouth case) quite proximate to courthouses

The one here in my town sits on the old courthouse lawn, though we have since built a new courthouse and then (even later) a still newer courthouse to replace it

There is an obvious reading of a confederate monument on courthouse grounds: it says, This is the white man's territory

This reading is often credible. The Portsmouth monument was erected in 1876, the moment Reconstruction ended. Portsmouth VA became a segregrated town, with separate cinema and ballpark; and it was once one of several important KKK centers in VA