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Breanna Robinson
Jan 26, 2023
Lawmaker hopes to eliminate Confederate Heroes Day
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An image from a ceremony for Confederate General Ambrose Powell, whose remains were reburied in Virginia on Saturday (21 January), is circulating online – and people find it troubling.
On Monday (23 January), the Twitter account @Purify_toast17 shared the image, which featured a group of Confederate reenactors dressed in southern antebellum attire present at the reburial.
"Confederate funeral today in Virginia. These are the same people who tell Black people 'slavery was so long ago, get over it," she captioned the post.
\u201cConfederate funeral today in Virginia. These are the same people who tell black people "slavery was so long ago, get over it:"\u201d— Veronica McDonald\ud83d\udde3 (@Veronica McDonald\ud83d\udde3) 1674534641
People echoed the poster's feelings, noting that the image is "frightening."
One person wrote: "This is frightening on so many levels…"
"There's a reason why the confederacy only lasted 5 years… it was based [on] an absolutely horrible & shameful ideology. #GOP pay attention to that. Find your humanity," another added.
A third wrote: "They want African Americans to forget 400+ years of slavery, but they can't let go [of a] Civil War that lasted 4 years. The hypocrisy is soooo overwhelming."
Someone else said: "We want to keep the confederate history that are important to us in America. But we want to cover up the brutal part of the Confederates that make us uncomfortable [with] the philosophy of America."
Check out other reactions below.
\u201cThey dug up a confederate body just to have another funeral for it just for funsies, meanwhile the graves of slaves often go unmarked and we can\u2019t find the bodies or graves of our family members\u201d— blklilacc (@blklilacc) 1674743231
\u201cWanna know why racism is still around? The South simply has yet to get over the Civil War. Plain and simple.\u201d— JKA \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udfad\u2744\ud83c\udf0a (@JKA \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udfad\u2744\ud83c\udf0a) 1674669881
\u201cAncestral reverence is a major part of confederate sympathizing and re-enacting.\u201d— Hestia \ud83d\udd06 (@Hestia \ud83d\udd06) 1674606541
According to The Free Lance-Star, close to 600 people attended the reburial, including the reenactors, at Fairview Cemetery in Culpepper.
The coffin was draped in a vintage Virginia flag.
The ceremony also reportedly closed out with a 21-gun salute and three rounds fired from a cannon.
Hill's statue and remains removal are the latest actions taken by the city of Richmond- the capital of the Confederate states in the Civil War.
They were removed following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests that called for justice following the horrific murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Hill's remains have also moved quite a bit since his death in 1865.
He has reportedly buried [at] a family cemetery in Chesterfield County. Then in 1867, it was moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Years later, in 1891, his remains were moved under the monument from where they were taken last month.
City officials note that the monument is also stored in an unknown location.
It will also be given back to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia.
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