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Resident reads petition asking Buckingham supervisors to add contextual plaque to Confederate monument
Summary
A Buckingham resident delivered a petition signed by about 110 people asking the board to appoint a commission and place a permanent plaque at the Confederate monument near the courthouse that would state the monument’s Jim‑Crow era origins and that 'the cause of human enslavement was never just.'
Joseph Anthony read a petition to the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors asking the board to appoint a commission to craft and erect a permanent plaque providing updated historical context for the Confederate monument across from the courthouse. Anthony said the petition, representing roughly 110 signatories, asks the plaque to state that the monument was ‘‘erected in the Jim Crow era’’ and that it ‘‘does not represent the majority views of the citizens of Buckingham County’’ and that ‘‘the cause of human enslavement was never just.’’
Anthony said his intent was not to relitigate the Civil War but to ‘‘put this one monument into its proper historical context’’ for future generations. He asked the board to make the change a ‘‘small but symbolically significant investment’’ and urged supervisors to listen to the petitioners. The petition was read into the public record and placed with the board for consideration. There was no formal board vote on the petition at this meeting.
The petition is now part of the public comment record; Anthony requested that the board take steps to appoint a commission and return with language the board could approve at a future meeting.
