Columbia, South Carolina - July, 10, 2017: Confederate activist attend a flag raising event held in protest of the the Confederate flag's removal from the S.C. State House in 2015. (Photo credit: Crush Rush /Shutterstock)
Confederate groups in Virginia lost their tax breaks in a new law signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger this week in a move that has frustrated the organizations, according to The New York Times.
Democrats in Virginia have tried for years to push away from the state's Confederate past, which has been known as the capital of the 11 slaveholding Southern states that seceded.
"The new law’s most significant target is the United Daughters of the Confederacy, founded in 1894 for descendants of Confederates," The Times reported. "The organization’s stated purpose is to honor the members’ ancestors. Throughout its history, the group built hundreds of Confederate memorials around the country, which have become flash points for protests over historical memory and racial injustices in the last decade."
The organization has argued that losing the tax breaks would put its Richmond-based headquarters in jeopardy.
"Of particular concern to the group is its marble-walled headquarters in Richmond. It sits on property that the state deeded the group in 1950, but the terms stipulate that if the organization can no longer maintain the site, it will revert to the state," according to The Times.
Two other bills pertaining to the state's Confederate past have come to governor's desk. One was focused on "the lost cause" narrative and its teaching at the Virginia Military Institute, which was sent back to the state's assembly with recommendations on how the school could move away from this instruction. The second bill signed last week by Spanberger was ending the state's specialty license plates featuring Robert E. Lee and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.
Frank Earnest, who is a spokesperson for the Virginia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told The Times that discontinuing the Lee license plate was a potential free speech concern. He called the move "terrible."
"I could go down to the D.M.V. right now and point out some fact about every plate there that I didn’t like," Earnest said. "So if we’re going to cancel every plate because somebody out there doesn’t like it, we might as well just cancel the whole program."