Virginia Judge Bars Lee Statue Removal for 90 Days

A judge on Monday dissolved one injunction preventing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration from removing an enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond but immediately instituted a new one in a different lawsuit.

The new 90-day injunction issued by Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant bars the statue’s removal while the claims in a lawsuit filed by a group of Richmond property owners are litigated.

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Commentary: The Virginia Democrats’ Minstrel Show

by George Rasley   No one can be sure when the first white man “blackened up” to play an African American on stage; however, Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice developed the first popularly known blackface minstrel character called “Jim Crow” in 1830.* Rice’s imitation of a black man and perpetuation of stereotypes was extremely popular with whites in both the North and South. Minstrel music was often inspired by Anglo-Celtic songs, but the performance, singing, and speech mimicked and mocked African American vernacular. Some white performers even augmented their noses and other features when performing to look more stereotypically “black.”* Judging by the revelations of the past week, it appears Mr. Rice’s theatrical descendants are governing the Commonwealth of Virginia, as both Democrat Governor Ralph Northam and Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring have been exposed appearing in blackface during the 1980s. And let’s be clear about what was going on in their appearances: Neither Northam nor Herring were appearing in “make-up” to play the African character in Shakespeare’s Othello or as a traditionally African character like “Zwarte Piet” in old Dutch Christmas pageants. They were blacked-up in the worst tradition of minstrelsy to mock and belittle African-Americans. When the website Big…

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