Vandals Topple Grave Markers At Historic Virginia Cemetery That Houses Confederates Monuments

On Saturday, visitors discovered that Richmond, Virginia’s historic Hollywood Cemetery had been vandalized. 

Memorials and grave markers had been pushed over by vandals in what is known as President’s Circle, the area where Presidents John Tyler and James Monroe are buried. Also buried at Hollywood Cemetery is Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate states, and his family, alongside a large monument to 18,000 Confederate soldiers. 

According to an ABC local news affiliate, officials with the cemetery said that they are “aware of the vandalism on the property” and filed a police report. The matter is under investigation at the time. 

Richmond’s Democratic Mayor Levar Stoney condemned the vandalism and said it “will not be tolerated.” “This weekend’s desecration at Hollywood Cemetery is morally wrong,” Stoney said. “Disturbing final resting places is contemptible, criminal, and will not be tolerated.”

The identity and motives of the vandals remain unknown. 

The destruction of Hollywood Cemetery follows a wave of vandalism and graffiti directed at Confederate memorials and statues during the summer of 2020. According to The Washington Post, the words “No More White Supremacy” and “Black Lives Matter” were written on the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond in mid-2020. The state of Virginia has decided to remove the statue “as soon as possible.” 

According to the Richmond Fire Department, the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters was set ablaze on May 31 as well. In the same state, photos show toilet paper around and graffiti written across a Confederate monument in Norfolk. 

Following the Black Lives Matter protests and riots, the city of Richmond removed the J.E.B. Stuart Monument, a tribute to the Confederate army general, on July 7. The city removed a slew of other monuments including the Stonewall Jackson Monument, the Matthew Fontaine Maury Monument, the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, two Confederate cannons, a statue of Joseph Bryan, and the Fitzhugh Lee cross — Fitzhugh served as a Major General in the Confederate army and later as Virginia’s governor.  

Many of the statutes in Richmond were toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters as well. On June 6, protesters pulled a statue of Williams Carter Wickham — a confederate general and plantation owner —  from the ground. Four days later, protesters toppled a portion of the Jefferson Davis Memorial. On June 16, protesters used a rope to take down the Howitzer Monument, which memorialized Richard Howitzers, a Confederate artillery unit. 

The push to erase Civil War history has moved past Confederate statues and memorials. Activists have also called for the removal of soldiers that depict Abraham Lincoln as an emancipator of enslaved people. They found success in Boston when members of the Boston Art Commission voted unanimously to remove an Emancipation Memorial that depicted a formerly enslaved man at the feet of Abraham Lincoln from 1879. 

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are advocating for the removal of the school’s Abraham Lincoln statue as well, claiming that the statute has a racist origin.