Category: Virginia history
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America’s Greatest of All Time
by Chap Petersen In a few days, our country will enter its 250th year. Some of us are old enough to remember the “Bicentennial” of 1976, which was the celebration of a younger, less introspective, nation. But America is no less greater. Indeed, the achievements of our Founding Fathers grow more noteworthy with time as…
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One Man’s RPV Advance is Another Man’s Valley Forge
Virginia Republicans have a lot to consider as they select their new RPV Chairman. by Shaun Kenney First things first — if you haven’t watched Ken Burns’ American Revolution on PBS, I hope you have a few history books at your side to confirm whether or not the good guys actually won the war, because…
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The New American Museum: Judge, Jury and Executioner
by Patricia N. Saffran and Ann McLean American museums used to have art exhibitions that dignified the human spirit. By contrast, today’s museums promote the wonton destruction and desecration of great works of art, mainly targeting the South, as in the Monuments Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Brick in Los Angeles. Currently,…
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Off the Interstate: A Public Figure Honored
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Whenever I travel to anywhere west of the Blue Ridge that is south of Staunton, I take U.S. Rt. 60. Such trips usually include a stop at a restaurant at Cumberland Courthouse that serves some of the best fried oysters in the Commonwealth and at a decent price, along with lemon meringue pie. If…
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Who Owns the Statues?
And who controls their fates? by Patricia N. Saffran and Ann McLean LA’s Monuments Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which opens this month, is being funded to desecrate figures from American history. As a result, culture battles are heating up over whether or not to send magnificent Confederate Beaux Arts monuments to Los Angeles.…
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Off the Interstate: A National Monument to a Virginia-born Slave
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Nestled among the commercial development and luxury homes along Smith Mountain Lake along Rt. 122 between Bedford and Rocky Mount is a National Monument to a slave born in Virginia. Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 in the community of Hale’s Ford in Franklin County. His enslaved mother, Jane, was the…
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Restoring Arlington Cemetery’s Reconciliation Monument
The restoration of a monument in Arlington Cemetery may serve as the spiritual portal that brings America back to its origin in greatness. by Scott Powell The attack on normalcy, traditions, and history in America intensified in 2020 with Covid-19 lockdowns and the riots catalyzed by the death of George Floyd. When destruction then turned under…
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Off the Interstate: A Whale of a Museum
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In Southern Virginia, where the Piedmont region begins to become the Blue Ridge, is the city of Martinsville, the home of the Virginia Museum of Natural History. The building and its contents are impressive. The museum’s mission is “to interpret Virginia’s natural heritage within a global context in ways that are relevant to…
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What Goes Around, Comes Around
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Richmond Times-Dispatch had an interesting article about Mark Christie. Christie served a member of Virginia’s State Corporation Commission for 20 years until Trump appointed him to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in his first term. In January, Trump named Christie to head FERC. Then, in June, Trump fired Christie without…
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Celebrate the 4th!
While we’re celebrating the 4th of July, acknowledging the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pa., let us not forget Virginia’s role in the war for independence. Self-loathing Americans — and there are plenty of them; the percentage of Americans who are “proud” to be American” has hit a new low — criticize…
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Dedicating a Statue to George Washington — in London
When Governor Glenn Youngkin visited France and the UK last week on an economic development trip, he rededicated the London statue of George Washington at Trafalgar Square gifted by the United States. Imagine that: the Brits honoring a statue of a traitor to the crown! One wonders what the reaction would have been if Youngkin…
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George Floyd Hysteria Cancelled President John Tyler
by Kerry Dougherty The death of convicted felon and Minneapolis drug addict George Floyd five years ago at the hands of a police officer did more than trigger race riots across the nation, cause an estimated $1-2 billion in damage and take the life of at least one person, retired St. Louis Police Officer David…
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The Destruction of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation
by Andrew Holowchak In 1985, Daniel Jordan—a Ph.D. in history from University of Virginia—became president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and runs Monticello. He would preside over Monticello for the next 24 years, during which time Thomas Jefferson’s life and legacy would be radically transformed through information made readily available by the Thomas…
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The UVa of Mr. Jefferson
by Dick Hall-Sizemore We hear a lot on this blog regarding the current state of the University of Virginia. The Jefferson Council wants to lead it “back to Thomas Jefferson’s legacy of freedom and excellence.” If one examines the actual early years of UVa under the direction of the Sage of Monticello, an interesting contrast arises.…
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Remembering George Rogers Clark
by Chap Petersen I spent this weekend in Charlottesville celebrating the graduation of my daughter Mary Walton. Very proud of her. In the colonial era, the town of Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County was the western frontier of Virginia. Beyond it lay the Blue Ridge mountains, the Shenandoah Valley and the fierce Shawnee Indians. In…