United Daughters of the Confederacy Lose Tax-Exempt Status on the Anniversary of Robert E. Lee's Surrender at Appomattox
UPDATE: It looks like I may have jumped the gun just a bit. The legislature is required to consider the governor’s recommendations. Either way, the larger point of this post stands on its own. The fact that the governor didn’t veto both bills speaks volumes.
Today is the anniversary of Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
Today in Virginia two bills that directly impact the Confederate heritage community go into effect. Governor Glenn Youngkin had until midnight last night to either sign or veto two bills. He chose to do nothing except to issue to issue a recommendation, but by doing nothing, the bills are now law.
HB 812: Repeals authorization for the issuance of Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and Robert E. Lee special license plates and provides that such special license plates already in circulation will remain valid until their expiration and shall not be renewed.
and
HB 568: Eliminates the exemption from state recordation taxes for the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and eliminates the tax-exempt designation for real and personal property owned by the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the General Organization of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Incorporated.
Now don’t go blaming the “Woke” Democrats for this attack on Confederate heritage. The legislature may be controlled by the Democrats, but Youngkin is a Republican. This came compliments of a Republican governor.
Governor Youngkin made a simple calculation that supporting a constituency stuck in a past committed to a mythologized understanding of the Confederacy and the Civil War no longer translates into political capital. He was right.
It really couldn’t get any worse for both the UDC and SCV, but it is “altogether fitting.” The pace of monument removals has slowed over the past two years, but Youngkin’s decision is a clear indicator of the steady decline of the Lost Cause in politics and public life.
This is not to suggest that Americans don’t disagree over the Civil War or even that the politics of Civil War memory has dissipated. But it is a reminder that the Lost Cause no longer enjoys the imprimatur of local and state government throughout the nation, including much of the South.
This matters. Both organizations, but especially the UDC, once exercised a great deal of influence on how Americans think about and commemorate the Civil War and the Confederacy. For the UDC, it was in the classroom, where minds could be shaped to accept and pass down stories of the Confederate Lost Cause to the next generation.
Those days are “gone with the wind” never to return.
It’s unclear what impact the governor’s inaction will have on the UDC. If the organization is able to pay it property taxes it will most certainly come at the expense of other areas of its activity in Richmond.
That said, it is important to keep in mind that the UDC’s and SCV’s influence, in Richmond and throughout the rest of the state, is, at best, minimal.
In Richmond, the UDC is no longer entrusted with the history and memory of the Confederacy. That responsibility has fallen to a number of institutions in and around Richmond.
Kehinde Wiley’s magnificent statue now looms large over the UDC’s national headquarters next door on the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The American Civil War Museum in Richmond is one of the premier museums in the country devoted to the Civil War era. In a couple weeks the ACWM will open a new exhibit, which will focus on the events, individuals, and topics that led to the division of the United States on the verge of civil war.
Charles Hoffbauer’s Lost Cause-inspired Confederate Memorial Military Murals are on display and properly interpreted at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
The Valentine Museum just opened a wonderful new exhibit on sculpture and the Lost Cause. Finally, the Black History Museum in Richmond will soon take on the responsibility of interpreting some of the Confederate monuments recently removed from Monument Avenue and other sites around the city.
The former Capital of the Confederacy has been completely transformed over the past few years. Confederate generals and its political leadership no longer look down on the city’s residents. Its monument and memorial landscape is now much more inclusive and inviting and, along with its museums, is now reflective of its rich and complicated past.
Today debates over the Civil War are part of the broader culture wars. Differences over Confederate symbols are no longer about the symbols themselves or even the history they purport to embody, but about the broader political and cultural agendas that they represent.
To that extent, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are no longer fighting over the Civil War.
I am glad to hear the Confederate apologists got what is coming to them. The harm they have done to the historical memory of the Civil War is insane.
But, as you say, the legislature is controlled by the Democrats. Woohoo! "The former Capital of the Confederacy has been completely transformed over the past few years." It's been a long time coming. We just bought a condo in Church Hill and will be spending part of every year in Richmond--can't wait.