Jefferson Davis Memorial (Richmond, Virginia)

Jefferson Davis Memorial
(2013)
Artist	statues: Edward Valentine
Year	1907 (1907)[1]: 12
Medium	statues: bronze
Dimensions	Doric column: 67 feet (20 m) tall Colonnade: 50 feet (15 m) tall
Condition	whole monument removed
Location	Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Coordinates	37°33′31″N 77°28′04″W / 37.5586°N 77.4678°W / 37.5586; -77.4678

The Jefferson Davis Memorial was a memorial for Jefferson Davis (1808–1889), president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865, installed along Richmond, Virginia's Monument Avenue, in the United States. The monument was unveiled on Davis' birthday, June 3, 1907, a day celebrated in Virginia and many other Southern states as Confederate Memorial Day. It consisted of a bronze statue of Davis by Richmond sculptor Edward Valentine surrounded by a colonnade of 13 columns representing the Southern states, and a tall Doric column topped by a bronze statue, also by Valentine, representing Southern womanhood.

The statue of Davis was toppled by protesters during the George Floyd protests in June 2020.^[2] The rest of the monument was taken down in February 2022. Being polled for the issue among several organizations, state residents were split among full removal of the monuments and leaving them in place and adding informative context such as signage.^[3]

The east-facing monument sported a 67-foot-tall (20 m) Doric column topped by a female bronze figure called Vindicatrix, an allegorical representation of Southern womanhood.^[4][a] There were thirteen columns, eleven bronze seals representing the seceding states and two representing states that sent troops for the Confederacy. Two square piers at either end of the colonnade are topped with eagles and faced with plaques. The bronze statues, Vindacatrix and Jefferson Davis in the center – the latter situated atop a block of granite^[7][8] – were designed by Edward Virginius Valentine; the arrangement was planned by William C. Noland.^[1]: 12

The statue of Davis shows him with an outstretched arm, lecturing from a history book.^[8] The frieze carries words Jefferson Davis spoke in his farewell address to the U.S. Senate on January 21, 1861.^[9]

This is done not in hostility to others, not to injure any section of the country, not even for our own pecuniary benefit; but from the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit unshorn to our children.

The plaque on the left end of the monument reads [both plaques originally all in caps]:

The Army of the Confederate States
------------------------------------------------
From Sumter to Appomattox four years of unflinching struggle against overwhelming odds
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Glory ineffable these around their dear land wrapping wrapt around themselves the purple mantle of death.
Dying, they died not at all, but, from the grave and its shadow, valor invincible lifts them glorified ever on high.

The plaque on the right end of the monument reads:

The Navy of the Confederate States
------------------------------------------------
Giving new examples of heroism teaching new methods of warfare it carried the flag of the South to the most distant seas
------------------------------------------------
If to die nobly be ever the proudest glory of virtue, this of all men has fortune greatly granted to them, for,
yearning with deep desire to clothe their country with freedom now at the last they rest full of an ageless fame

During the many years required to raise the funds needed for the memorial, various designs and placements in the city were considered.^[8] Unveiled in 1907 on Confederate Memorial Day – June 3^[7][10] – on what would have been Davis' 99th birthday, the monument was funded by the Jefferson Davis Monument Association and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.^[7][b] The unveiling was scheduled in conjunction with a reunion of the United Confederate Veterans, and attracted a large crowd of between 80,000 and 200,000 people. A parade of veterans followed by prayers and speeches preceded the unveiling, which was effected by one of Davis's daughters, Margaret Davis Hayes, and two of his grandchildren.^[8]

A local newspaper said of the memorial at the time, "The entire monument ... typifies the vindication of Mr. Davis and the cause of the Confederacy for which he stood before the world..."^[8]

During the protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, the bronze statue of Davis was torn down by protesters on June 10, 2020.^[13]

The statue of Vindicatrix, representing Southern womanhood, on top of the central column, was removed by the City of Richmond on July 8, 2020.^[14][15]

The remainder of the monument, including the main column and colonnade, was dismantled altogether in February 2022. A time capsule was found while the work took place. No trace of the monument now remains on its original site.^[16]

The vandalized Davis statue is currently displayed at The Valentine in Richmond—a museum whose first president was Edward Virginius Valentine, the statue's sculptor—as part of the museum's "This is Richmond, Virginia" exhibit.^[12][17][18] The statue is on loan from the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia.^[12][17][18] It will be displayed lying horizontally in its "2020 state": there is damage to the statue's head and right arm, and splatters of pink paint remain on the statue, as well as torn pieces of toilet paper around the statue's collar.^[12][17][18] Valentine curator Christina Vida stated that, "we wanted to make sure that paint stays applied. That the damage that occurred to it when it was pulled down by protesters that it stays just that way."^[12]

• 
  George Washington Custis Lee on horseback, with staff reviewing Confederate Reunion Parade on June 3, 1907, in front of the monument
• 
  Detail of the statue of Jefferson Davis
• 
  The memorial as it stood in July, 2020 after the removal of the Davis statue

• List of monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests

Informational notes

Citations

• Media related to Jefferson Davis Monument at Wikimedia Commons