Removing the Stonewall Jackson Monument in Richmond, VA
Removing the JEB Stuart Monument in Richmond, VA
Last week I did not write a Weekly Reflection, because Vickie and I were in the process of moving to the Richmond, VA metro area after 30 years in the Washington, DC metro area. Although this is a major change in physical location, the ministry of Cornelius Corps continues to follow God’s call to build transforming relationships through a network of churches and individuals on a shared journey of racial justice/reconciliation and spiritual formation. As a result of the ongoing pandemic, our ministry is developing new forms online which enable us to connect regularly with people in a variety of locations including Virginia, DC, North Carolina, and Maine.
There were a number of factors in our decision to move to Richmond including both family and ministry relationships. In some ways it is like coming home, because we lived in Richmond for eight years from 1978-86 while I was in seminary and serving my first appointment as the associate pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church. In other ways, we have moved to a new Richmond. The famous boulevard of Monument Avenue now has far fewer monuments. Those of Stonewall Jackson, JEB Stuart, Jefferson Davis, and Matthew Maury have been removed. The largest one, the Robert E Lee monument, is scheduled to be removed. The pictures in this post show the removals of the Jackson and Stuart monuments. The Lee monument continues to be a site for racial justice gatherings and protests. All this reflects huge changes not only in Richmond but across the country and around the world sparked by the murder of George Floyd on May 25 and its connection with the history of racial violence against black lives past and present. As I reflect on returning to Richmond without the row of monuments that stood there for over a century, I want to share some words by the author and antiracist activist Austin Channing Brown from her book I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness:
Our only chance at dismantling racial injustice is being more curious about its origins than we are worried about our comfort. It’s not a comfortable conversation for any of us. It is risky an messy. It is haunting work to recall the sins of our past. But is this not the work we have been called to anyway? Is this not the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate truth and inspire transformation? It’s haunting. But it’s also holy.
I am grateful to live at this opportune time in Richmond and in our nation as we continue the holy work of racial justice.