Sunday, March 18, 2018

Today marks the start of a short road trip I’m calling my “Southern Escape”. The weather in Washington this spring has been pretty awful:  below average temperatures, frequent rain/snow showers and a couple of significant wind storms that caused me to lose power. My initial intent was to head for the warmth of central Florida, where spring training baseball is in full swing. However, a couple of games I wanted to see were sold out, I’ve already driven almost all of the scenic routes in Florida and I’m not a beach person so I have decided to focus the trip on several southern cities that I’ve not visited before.

Today took me to Durham, NC with one stop in Richmond, VA to see Monument Avenue which I have not visited for about 30 years. The avenue is a National Historic Landmark and is a broad, tree-lined route with many historical and architecturally significant houses, churches and other buildings and a number of large monuments at its intersections. Richmond was the capital of the confederacy in the American Civil War and most of the monuments honor confederate heroes such as Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and “Stonewall” Jackson although a statue of tennis player Arthur Ashe was dedicated in 1996.

Usually the side that loses a war has little reason or opportunity to glorify its leaders but the politics of the South had not changed significantly after the war and white supremacy was maintained by passing racially discriminatory “Jim Crow” laws. At the same time hundreds of confederate monuments were erected to reinforce this power structure. More recently, many cities have recognized the bigotry and offense that these monuments represent and have removed them. Although removing the statues from Monument Avenue would be legally challenging because the area is officially recognized by the Federal, State and City governments as historically significant, I wanted to see them again for myself and spent a some time walking the avenue.

Richmond has a majority African American population and, in polls, most residents want change but do not want the statues removed. The confederate monuments represent one perspective on the history of the city and many believe that, by contextualizing the statues with displays and information about the lives of the majority of its residents, the area can become one of truly historical value. I hope to return if/when that path is followed.

One issue with the first half of this trip is that I could not find scenic routes anywhere near the cities I wanted to visit and most of the driving is on highways. I wondered if I should bother to record my usual road videos but decided to do it anyway as I have not driven these routes before and want to maintain consistency. Today’s video offers a good view of Monument Avenue but the rest is almost all highway. If you would like to view it, click below.

Road video and map

Monument Avenue is a wonderful mixture of statues, churches and upscale residences. The first picture shows the J.E,B. Stuart monument and one of several churches at one end.

while this gives a good feel of walking the avenue and shows the “Stonewall” Jackson monument.

The Jefferson Davis Monument.

and the Arthur Ashe monument at the other end of the avenue.