This is a big change to state law, which had allowed local governments to add new war monuments, but not to remove, alter, or move existing ones. They can’t add placards describing them, explaining why they were erected, or putting them in the context of Virginia’s history. New legislation in the House would give latitude to localities to “remove, relocate, contextualize, cover or alter” the monuments that are in their public places. Del. Sally Hudson, a University of Virginia economist and professor representing Charlottesville, spoke eloquently about how much this matters to her city. “Some have accused us of trying to erase history,” she said. “We’re not. We’re trying to finally tell it.”
She talked about canvassing in her city. “Black women will pull you inside,” she said, and tell you to “be careful, getting mixed up in all that statue stuff.” Then, she said, they will “tell you their stories. […] That the statues remind them that some places in our city will never be shared. You ask black men, they’ll tell you what it’s like to pass the Johnny Reb statue that guards our courthouse and wonder how they’ll ever get justice inside.”
She continued, “My students have stories, too. […] They’ll tell you of the night they ran outside to take the Star of David off their door because they could see the Nazis marching down the lawn. And when I see the statues, like so many in Charlottesville, I can hear the tires screeching from the car attack that took one life and ravaged so many more.”
Source: http://feeds.dailykosmedia.com/~r/dailykosofficial/~3/IrX-kLUM_0o/-Virginia-s-Democratic-Assembly-continue-march-into-the-21st-century-takes-on-Confederate-monuments