St. Elizabeth Church Speaker Series: History of the Civil War Monuments in Richmond ~ Photo by m.a.allen

Anticipating another Charlottesville?

History of the Civil War Monuments in Richmond

Stephanie Arduini, Director of Education

Chris Graham, Special Curator

American Civil War Museum

By the number of persons attending this first session of the St. Elizabeth Speaker Series, it appears that the past and future of the monuments on Monument Avenue is of much interest to the citizens of our city.  

Stephanie and Chris led us in a discussion of what these monuments meant to us and what, if anything, should be done about them. They also delved into the history of when and why the statues were erected and we responded with questions and suggestions.

We listened to each other and thus, came away with a better understanding of why people feel the way they do; how their experiences growing up shaped their lives; and how racism is often hidden but nonetheless exists. 

Many thanks to the St. Elizabeth's Social Justice Committee for bringing this forum to us.  A very worthwhile evening!


As a followup for this session, Stephanie suggested the following resources:

It might be useful for attendees to look at our special microsite, OnMonumentAve.com, and in particular, the following parts of it:

- The reader: This collection of primary sourced voices spans the 120+ years of Monument Avenue from different perspectives and helps to illuminate some of the different meanings that the statues have accrued over time.  It also has a couple of contemporary historians' excerpts, and some questions for reflection/discussions at the end.  In total, it's designed to be short enough to be able to be read over a cup or two of coffee.

- The blog: An ongoing series of posts that more deeply explore the many meanings of the monuments, especially what they do and do not say.  Starting next week, we'll also have a short series of posts that explore the stories of each individual statue.

- The Monument Avenue Commission's meeting agenda: The Commission created an agenda that included short histories of each statue on Monument Avenue, including where funding came from, who put them up, etc.


~ Photo by m.a.allen