it’s remarkable how different the courthouse looks today https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1304718258323558402

a small group has gathered to bless this space now that the confederate statue has been removed. reverend don gathers offers a prayer, saying our work is not done.

a rabbi leads the group in song, olam chesed yibaneh (we will build this world with love).

siri russel, albemarle county’s director of equity & inclusion, is asked by don to give some remarks. “i hope this isn’t the only baton that we’re able to pick up,” she says, saying her work on this statue removal was the result of building off the work of others.

professor larycia hawkins says her ancestors came through this space. richmond was a place where africans stolen from madagascar were sold.

professor hawkins says this space feels haunted. “the specter of slavery & enslavement is everywhere.” it is a space that feels oppressive to her mind & body. as a professor at UVA, she knows the university’s founder listed horses above people in importance among his possessions

“may this be the birth of another nation where liberty and justice doesn’t mean walking by a statue that says we don’t count as citizens,” hawkins says of the removal of johnny reb.

@ZyahnaB and the black youth action committee ( @BYACCville) are here. don asks them to say a few works. they’ve been doing direct aid - food, masks & hand sanitizer, even cash to folks in need - on the downtown mall every sunday.

“the work that we picked up from our ancestors is indeed in good hands,” don says of the work being done by the black youth action committee.

pastor phil woodson says yesterday we watched “an idol of prejudice and injustice” be dismantled and carried away. “but the lasting effects of its legacy, the legacy of slavery and white supremacy,” still remain.

“may we be emboldened to do the heavy lifting in our souls so that all our black, brown, and indigenous siblings can live without fear,” pastor woodson says in prayer.

elizabeth, who is quaker, offers a prayer for the space where the statue stood until yesterday. “purify and revivify the ground that we stand on,” she prays.

@Jalane_Schmidt acknowledges the traditional stewards of this land, the monacan nation.

don lights the sage while jalane recounts the local struggle to remove the statue of george rogers clark & the statue of lewis & clark with sacagawea cowering below them.
“none of us are free until all of us are free,” and the struggles of black & indigenous people are entwined.

jalane wafts the sage smoke over the spot where the confederate statue stood until yesterday morning. the concrete foundation underneath the plinth was 3 feet thick. literally and figuratively, he was deeply entrenched in this space.

clergy members and community activists approach the site where the statue stood with small bottles. they will pour out libations.

don honors his ancestors, jalane continues to purify the space.

former city councilor kristin szakos honors our sister winneba, ghana

@BYACCville member althea honors those who came before us

pastor phil say his faith tradition uses water to sanctify. he honors the community, which is something greater than the sum of its parts - something holy.

his words were muffled by his mask and i missed his name, i’m so sorry, but this water is poured in the hope for a future of harmony

don now opens up the pouring of libations to the community - there is a cooler of water with a ladle. anyone who feels moved can dip the ladle pour it on the spot where the statue once stood.

people come forward to honor their ancestors, to offer hope for the future, to remember lives lost. some simply empty the ladle in solemn silence.

@ZyahnaB pours one out “for the less respectable ancestors who refused to assimilate to whiteness”
“for the ancestors who cursed and twerked, for the ancestors who smoked weed, for the ancestors who did things that were frowned upon”

a woman in an SUV driving by stops and yells out her window “FREE AT LAST! oh god almighty we are free at last!”

“for all of those who didn’t get justice in the shadow of this statue and in the hope that someday all people will,” says an attorney, emptying the ladle onto the hay covering the raw earth.

everyone here knows removing the statue doesn’t solve the root problem. but it’s emblematic of progress being made. this wasn’t possible last year. and now it is. and we came together in community to take the space back and commit to the hard work to come.