Bye-bye, Trump! A quiet fall day on the Downtown Mall quickly turned into a party on Saturday morning as word spread that Joe Biden had won Pennsylvania, giving him enough electoral votes to win the presidential race. People cheered and clapped in celebration of the Democrat’s long-awaited victory, while cars sporting Biden-Harris flags honked as […]
Johnny Reb
Poem on the Removal of the Statue of Johnny Reb
By Gregory Orr I won’t miss the way Your bronze body Froze History into bitterness. That spot you occupied No longer radiates Shadows In every direction Like a malign sundial Designed to thwart The slow Progress of time. Your absence: a form Of hope, a flat And empty space Where citizens stand […]
In brief: Richardson steps down, Johnny Reb goes down, and more
One down Johnny Reb, the bronze Confederate soldier who has stood, musket in hand, outside the Albemarle County Courthouse since 1909, has been replaced by a patch of hay. After the Unite the Right rally accelerated the national debate over Confederate monuments, Charlottesville finally took down one of our own. The Albemarle Board of Supervisors […]
In brief: Johnny Reb’s coming down, Kanye’s off the ballot, and more
In brief Officer arrested Charlottesville police officer Jeffrey Jaeger was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery last week. The charges stem from a March 3 incident in which three officers, including Jaeger, who is white, arrested an unnamed Black defendant for being drunk in public. [...]
Reb on the run: Albemarle County votes to remove courthouse statue; Lee still stands
Last Thursday, six days before the third anniversary of the Unite the Right rally, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted 6-0 to remove the statue of a Confederate soldier, known as “Johnny Reb,” which stands outside the county courthouse. The Board of Supervisors vote comes after the [...]
In brief: Black at STAB, a win for Webb, and more
Private protests For decades, students in collared shirts and plaid skirts have strolled across St. Anne’s-Belfield’s well-manicured lawns. But even this historic bastion of prep has felt the effects of our transformative moment, at least in a small way. After the murder of George Floyd, a [...]
In brief: People power, tech takeover, bye-bye bikes, and more
People power Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline scored a huge victory last week when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals repealed Dominion Energy’s permit to build an invasive compressor station in Buckingham County’s historic Union Hill neighborhood. “Today we showed that our community, [...]