Article from Richmond Times-Dispatch, September, 6, 2020.
Lexington[, VA] — The Lexington City Council has officially renamed the cemetery where Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson is buried.
Council members voted unanimously Thursday to adopt a law changing the the name of Stonewall Memorial Cemetery to Oak Grove Cemetery, according to local news outlets.
The council voted unanimously in July to change the name and moved forward with the change even after receiving hundreds of comments demanding the decision be reversed, The Roanoke Times said.
Councilman Chuck Smith said the effect on tourism would likely be “negligible” and added that supporting the racist legacy of Jackson would be “unacceptable and indefensible.”
“Visitors interested in Jackson don’t come for the sign, they come for the man,” he said. “Jackson owned slaves and fought for slavery. Memorializing Jackson in a Lexington city cemetery announces to everyone that the city and its residents support Jackson and what he stood and fought for.”
Submitted by Franklin Leep
One comment
Stonewall believed that nothing happened in his world that was not ordained by God. He didn’t want to go to war but when the military is your employer you do what you’re told. He taught one young slave to read so he could escape to Canada. He opened a Sunday school for them and when one elderly female slave became ill he paid for her medical care and made sure all her needs were met. When she died he paid for her funeral. When he died the blacks who had known him sobbed that they had lost their best friend. Yeah, he sounds like a really terrible person. We cannot judge the people of the past by today’s standards.