There were years of debate and lobbying, Alexandria finally has state authorization to move the Appomattox statue in the middle of the S. Washington Street and Prince Street.
The statue has defenders who say that the statue should not be moved at all. The placement in the center of the street represents the spot where Alexandrians gathered to leave the Union-occupied Alexandria and join the Confederacy. The statue also, pointedly, faces away from Washington D.C. and to the south. While many of the statues being removed across the south glamorize the southern cause, defenders of the statue note that the pose was more solemn.
Opponents of the statue’s location argue that it presents both a traffic hazard and is part of a broader legacy of celebrating both the slavery-supporting Confederate States of America and the lost cause mythos that frequently comprised the bulwark of opposition to the Civil Rights Movement.
Plans approved in 2016 suggested moving the statue to the lawn of the Lyceum, a historical museum that sits at the same intersection. The city lacked the authority to move the statue at that time, but Mayor Justin Wilson said those plans for the statue still stand.
Still others have suggested that the public display of the statue still honors the Confederacy, with suggested alternative locations including the bottom of the Potomac River.
I suggest we offer Alexandria’s statue to the Museum of the Bottom of the Potomac https://t.co/hAZLQUyPpE
— Andrew Beaujon (@abeaujon) February 11, 2020
So with the statue’s future currently uncertain, do you think the statue should be moved? If so, where?
Staff photo by Jay Westcott
