In the long, hard slog in the march to freedom — Bacon’s Rebellion (the original one), the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the struggle against Jim Crow and massive resistance — there has never been a monument erected to honor Virginia’s leaders of the Civil Rights movement. That’s about to change. Renderings were unveiled Monday for a granite monument commemorating the struggle to integrate public schools in the 1950s and ’ 60s. (See the Virginian-Pilot article.)
The privately funded, $2.8 million memorial will depict students in the 1951 walk out at Robert Russa Moton High School, in Farmville; the Rev. L. Francis Griffin, a Farmville civil rights activist; and civil rights lawyers Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill, who led the legal fight.
Many observers are hyper-critical of the early Virginians who failed to live up to the sensibilities of the 21st century, as if democracy and equal rights should have emerged, like the virgin birth, pure and unsullied from the monarchical, superstition-drenched and tribal mentality of early 17th century Europe. It is vital to remember that democratic institutions, the rule of law, human rights and property rights emerged only after centuries of conflict, and cannot be taken forgranted. Virginians need to honor all the heroes who helped create our modern-day institutions, which, however imperfect, are the least imperfect yet devised by mankind.
Now that we’ve given the Civil Rights heroes their due, maybe it’s time to set up a statue for Nathaniel Bacon who in 1676 championed the rights of free-born Englishman against an overweening monarchy!