Hearing on Confederate monument set
Williamsburg police officers said Friday that the Confederate monument located at Bicentennial Park was defaced, according to an email from Williamsburg Police Department spokesman John Heilman.
Williamsburg police officers were dispatched at around 8 p.m. June 6 to 320 W. Court St. for a report of vandalism, Heilman said in the email.
“Officers discovered the war monument located in the park was defaced by graffiti,” he said.
Williamsburg City Council members discussed starting the formal process for the removal of the city’s Confederate monument in Bicentennial Park at a work session on Monday.
A new law that comes into effect in Virginia on July 1 allows localities to remove, move or add context to their war memorials. It requires local authorities to hold a public hearing about the removal of a monument, with a 30-day window afterward for outside groups such as museums to submit a bid.
The public meeting on the removal of the monument will be at 2 p.m. July 14 at the Stryker Center Council Chambers.
The more than 20-foot-tall monument is adorned with Confederate flags and was erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy and the citizens of Williamsburg and James City County. Built in 1908, it originally sat in Colonial Williamsburg’s Palace Green, but now sits in the park off Court Street.
The initial damage to the monument was valued at $200, according to Heilman. He said no injuries were reported, and that an arrest has not been made in connection with the vandalism.
Correspondent David Macaulay contributed to this report.
Alex Perry, 757-285-9397, alexander.perry@ virginiamedia.com