Alexandria Will Seek to Move Confederate Statue and Rename Jefferson Davis Highway

In a town that once took considerable pride in its Confederate past, the Alexandria City Council voted unanimously Saturday to change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway and seek permission from the Virginia General Assembly to move a renowned statue of a Confederate soldier in historic Old Town.

The council’s actions went beyond the recommendations of a task force that studied what to do about the city’s controversial Confederate symbols, but not as far as some residents wanted.

After a lengthy public hearing, the council agreed to try to relocate the “Appomattox” statue from the busy intersection of Prince and Washington streets, where thousands of motorists pass it each day. The pensive and unarmed south-facing Confederate soldier would be moved to a local history museum on the same corner.

Relocating the seven-foot, bronze statue will be a heavy political lift. It cannot be moved without the agreement of the legislature, and the General Assembly passed a bill earlier this year further strengthening prohibitions against cities and counties removing war memorials. The legislation was vetoed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) in March.

The statue occupies the spot where a local regiment mustered to retreat from the city just before Union troops seized Alexandria in 1861. Erected in 1889 and owned by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, it bears the names of Alexandria residents who died on behalf of the South. Once surrounded by an iron fence, grass and gaslights, its footprint has shrunk significantly, and vehicles have occasionally collided with it.

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Opinions from the 18 speakers who lined up to testify Saturday in Alexandria were as heated as if the Civil War had just ended. They spoke in a chamber where a portrait of Robert E. Lee hangs opposite one of George Washington and where the painted backdrop behind the council is of Alexandria during its Union occupation.

Ellen Tabb decried the task force that recommended the changes to the council, noting that none of the members knew Southern history. She said native Virginians had been vilified at the commission’s meetings as “racists, bigots and murderers.”

Bernard Berne, who lives in Arlington, called Jefferson Davis a “tragic hero” who thought secession was legal and who should not be condemned for believing in slavery, which was part of the culture at the time.

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The decision to rename Jefferson Davis Highway, also known as Route 1, which runs from the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River and south to Richmond, was less contentious.

Within the city’s historically African American neighborhood of Parker-Gray, the road splits; the northbound portion is called Patrick Street, and the southbound Henry Street. That prompted Mayor Allison Silberberg (D) to suggest the highway should be renamed Patrick Henry. But she and others agreed that the city should set up a community process to find a new name.

Arlington does not have the power to change the highway’s name without approval from the General Assembly. The Alexandria council asked the city manager to discuss name changes with Arlington in an attempt to keep the highway’s name consistent if Arlington is willing and able to change the road’s name in its jurisdiction.

The council also decided Saturday to consider on a case-by-case basis the renaming of Alexandria’s 30 or more streets named after Confederate war heroes. Citizens will have to petition the city to get the street names changed.

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