Confederate heritage advocate Bragdon Bowling is withdrawing his request to the state to hold a Sept. 16 rally at the Robert E. Lee statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue after white supremacists caused violence in Charlottesville over the weekend.
Bowling said by email Tuesday that “due to the potential for violence after Charlottesville, the rally on Sept. 16 will not be held.”
“I do not want to be part of an event where people are hurt or killed,” Bowling said. “Our purpose is to save monuments, not be engaged in social and racial issues.”
Bowling made a request several weeks ago to the state Department of General Services to hold the rally. The state had not yet made a decision on it.
Bowling, of Richmond, said Monday that he would consider withdrawing the request if police could not ensure the rally would be safe and opposite sides would be separated. He said his goal was a rally about monument preservation and that he did not want former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke or extremist groups attending.
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In an interview Tuesday, he referenced the death of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who was killed Saturday in Charlottesville when James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Ohio, who had attended the Unite the Right rally, allegedly plowed his car into a group of anti-racist protesters.
“I thought that was awful, and I don’t want anything like that at our rally because that’s not what we’re all about it,” Bowling said. He also realized that anyone wanting to attend his rally and cause trouble had several weeks to plan.
Bowling’s application said Corey Stewart, who nearly won the GOP nomination for governor this year, had been invited to attend.
Bowling said he remains concerned that Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney wants to add context to the city’s Confederate monuments.
“I still think that there’s plenty of criticism to be levied against that commission that the mayor put together,” Bowling said.
Stoney, who had said the city would be prepared for a rally, said Monday that the events in Charlottesville did not change his position that Richmond’s Confederate monuments should remain where they are. But the news that Bowling had withdrawn the request was no doubt a relief.
“The mayor believes Mr. Bowling made a sensible decision,” Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan said in a statement.
So did Phil Wilayto of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, a Richmond civil rights group, who said revulsion over Confederate statues has exploded since the events in Charlottesville.
“This is an historic moment for Mayor Stoney. Is he going to follow the lead of other mayors across the country, or is he going to continue to say these should stay right where they are with a few signs around them?” Wilayto said. “One way or the other, they’re going to come down.
“The only question is, is the city going to show moral leadership on this issue?”
Jennifer O. Crosland of Richmond, who grew up in Charlottesville, was among those who attended a vigil in Richmond on Sunday evening following the violence. She said she believes white supremacists are using the Confederate monuments to recruit more members.
“They decided to, I think, create a race riot over monuments,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s about the monuments. ... It’s about exposure. To find a way to use the monuments as exposure.”