RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia lawmakers are advancing bills to remove Confederate symbols from state law and strip tax exemptions from Confederate-linked organizations, reigniting debates over how the state should address its Civil War legacy.
One piece of legislation would remove "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" as the state song emeritus. It was picked as the state song in 1940, but moved to emeritus status in 1997.
Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), the bill's sponsor, said the song glorifies slavery and contains pejoratives like "massah" and "darky".
"We realized how offensive it was, or acknowledged how offensive it was, before I even got to the General Assembly, and it was designated as the song emeritus. And I just don't think it should be in the code," Ebbin said.
Ebbin also has a bill to remove three statues of men tied to the Confederacy that are on Capitol Square.
Del. Dan Helmer's (D-Fairfax) bill would retire specialty license plates for the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
"His celebration is an artifact of a lost cause effort by Virginia to try to restate the cause of the Confederacy in the wake of the Civil War, leading up to Jim Crow and suppression of Black voters," Helmer said.
Several people provided online comments in opposition to the bill. One man who testified during a subcommittee hearing said it was "deliberate discrimination".
"This infringes upon the citizens' right to have license plates. License plates are harmful to no one, only hatred and deliberate discrimination by the Commonwealth of Virginia would cause this committee to vote to remove them," said Edward Willis.
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Del. Alex Askew's legislation targets tax-exempt status for Confederate organizations, including the Richmond-based United Daughters of the Confederacy.
In a statement on UDC's website, the organization called the measure "viewpoint discrimination" that "blatantly targets 'Confederate' organizations".
"Passage of this bill will set a precedent to open the door for other valuable historical museums to lose tax-exempt status and opens wide the door for legal action. Is this simply a test case before moving on to bigger and better targets, including churches? To target any group who does not conform to the delegate’s way of thinking is un-American," said the statement from Julie N. Hardaway, President General. "To punish descendants of those veterans who responded to the call of your legislature in 1861 to defend their state reeks of discrimination, based on misguided and biased opinions of our great philanthropic organization."
Askew said Confederate symbols harm African-Americans and that Virginia should modernize its laws.
"We put in these bills to take a step forward and bring our code up to who we are today as Virginians," Askew said.
Similar bills passed the General Assembly in recent years but were vetoed by former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Sponsors said they hope Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signs the measures.
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