At General Assembly, defense of Confederate statues sparks outrage

Kate Seltzer, The Virginian-Pilot on Feb 26, 2026

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RICHMOND — Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, rose for a point of personal privilege Thursday afternoon and took the opportunity to urge against the passage of a bill that would remove several Confederate statues from Capitol Square in Richmond. SB636 passed the Senate along party lines earlier this month and will soon come before the House of Delegates.

The statues of Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, Gov. William “Extra Billy” Smith and Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire and were unveiled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the era of Jim Crow.

Jackson and Smith were prominent generals in the Confederate army, and Smith went on to become governor of Virginia. McGuire was a Civil War doctor and staunch supporter of slavery and an a opponent of voting rights for Black people.

Richmond removed the majority of its Confederate statues in 2020, including a statue of Robert E. Lee that was on state property and ordered removed by then-Gov. Ralph Northam. The legislation directs the Department of General Services to remove the statues and store them until the General Assembly determines their final resting place, likely next session.

In his remarks on the House floor, Ware described the practice of slavery existing on the African continent before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and said it was unfair to call Jackson a traitor.

“Men and women of the past can be understood only in the context of their times,” he said. “Lee, Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr., Christians all, would have appreciated as providential the proximity of the dates of their births. And it may be that even today or in some great day to come, in the realm where the spirits of the just are made perfect, (Lee), Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr. are side by side at the supper of the lamb.”

Del. Michelle Maldonado, D-Prince William, responded to the remarks on the House floor, describing them as offensive.

“I am astounded by at what we just heard from the delegate,” she said. “Using soft words, equating what was pure inhumanity — murder, rape, pillage — in our history, using language about both sides — there’s no both sides. And when we say that Africans participated in the slave trade, let’s be clear slavery as embraced in this country did not replicate the slavery that we saw around the world … There was no fairness, and there is also no equivocating statues in public places for people who looked at people like me and people who look like me as less than human.”

Maldonado is African American. Ware is white.

Meanwhile, a bill that would remove the tax-exempt designation for Confederate organizations has already passed both chambers along party lines. That legislation was carried by Del. Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach. Previous attempts to eliminate the exemptions had been vetoed by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

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