Judge Authorizes Removal of Memorial Glorifying Confederacy’s “Lost Cause”

A federal judge in Virginia last week authorized Arlington National Cemetery to remove a Confederate memorial that was the subject of a temporary restraining order.

The judge said the cemetery took adequate precautions to avoid disturbing nearby graves, despite an advocacy group’s complaint.

Congress approved legislation in 2021 requiring the removal of all memorials to the Confederacy on public property. It appointed a commission to oversee the removals.

The “Confederate Memorial” erected in 1914 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy glamorizes the noble “Lost Cause” rhetoric of the Old South. It overlooks Confederate graves.

A description of the statue on the cemetery’s website says, “The elaborately designed monument offers a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery. “

The memorial displays a bronze statue of a robed woman symbolizing the Confederate states sitting on top of a three-story pedestal. The pedestal is decorated with images of Confederate soldiers and civilians, including an African-American slave woman holding a Southern soldier’s baby and an African-American man following his owner to war.

Like other Confederate memorials, Congress ordered that it be taken down by Jan. 1. The legislation was prompted by public outrage in 2020 after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

The removal was halted for a day after a group called Defense Arlington filed an emergency petition saying the Defense Department, which oversees the cemetery, was violating federal environmental law by failing to prove it could avoid damage to adjacent graves.

The Defense Department’s “insistence on pressing forward with their removal has and will cause severe damage to the Memorial and the families of its creator and those buried there,” Defense Arlington wrote in a court filing.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also opposes removal of the memorial. He arranged a deal with the Defense Department for it to be placed in the Virginia Museum of the Civil War at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.

U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. in Alexandria initially granted a temporary order but a day later revoked it after determining precautions against harming other parts of the cemetery were proper.

The judge agreed with Arlington National Cemetery, which said in a news release, "During the deconstruction, the area around the Memorial will be protected to ensure no impact to the surrounding landscape and grave markers and to ensure the safety of visitors in and around the vicinity of the deconstruction."

For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: [email protected] or phone: 202-479-7240.