Editor’s note: This is a copy of the letter that Graf recently sent to Floyd County Circuit Judge Michael Fleenor:
You may recall that when you first took office as Presiding Judge of the 27th Judicial Circuit, Floyd Circuit Court, I wrote the court asking you to consider taking down the Confederate statue in front of the Floyd Courthouse. At that time, I was not licensed in Virginia. I was licensed in Oregon and Tennessee.
Subsequent to my letter to your office, I became a member of the Virginia Bar through reciprocity as the laws in Virginia changed allowing me to do so. My prime motivation in becoming a Virginia lawyer was to take on a lawsuit that would seek to remove the statue in front of the Floyd County Courthouse. I concur with Honorable Judge Charles N. Dorsey that “the continued presence of the Confederate monument, in its present location ... and with its present content, obstructs the proper administration of justice ...” See Attached Order of the Circuit Court for the County of Roanoke, signed by Judge Charles Dorsey.
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I have attached the Order and Judge Dorsey’s well researched and reasoned letter complete with citations along with the editorial in support from The Roanoke Times for your review.
I am hoping that this Order and the reasoning and facts that support the Order will compel the Floyd Court to take a similar action towards the statue that stands as a continuing obstruction to justice in front of the Floyd County Courthouse.
In his letter to [Roanoke County Board of Supervisors] Chairman Peters, Judge Dorsey recounts looking out his window in the courthouse and seeing a young African-American walk by the statue shaking her head in anger, disgust and bewilderment. In other words, the statue is not a conceptual barrier to justice. It is real barrier to justice to African-Americans who pass by the Roanoke statue as well as those who pass by the statue in front of the Floyd Courthouse everyday.
I am not at liberty to name names, but as an officer of the court, I can honestly report to the court that Floyd is losing one of its valued African-American citizens because that citizen is fed up with the status quo in Floyd that the statue symbolizes and represents.
That valued citizen has decided to move from Floyd and take their energy, their family and their business elsewhere.
Further, I know for a fact that many African-Americans who live in Floyd feel the same way but are afraid of expressing such a view because of the potential retaliation against taking such a public stance. They are modern citizens still beaten down by the oppressive yoke of history still alive in Floyd County.
I have seen and understand the resistance to moving the statue. But as Judge Dorsey writes in his letter to Chairman Peters, “symbols convey the power of meaning.”
And that “no one would suggest a Confederate flag or monument has any place in a courtroom.”
Judges are asked to make hard decisions all the time. It is part of the job description. As a new member of the Virginia Bar and a Floyd County practitioner, I request once again, that the court consider taking the same stance as Judge Dorsey has so ordered.
In his letter to Chairman Peters, Judge Dorsey writes “But in order to make this part of the judicial system of Virginia more legitimate to all of those whom we serve, this small statue with its large, ugly message must be removed.”
I respectfully request that the 27th Judicial Circuit, Floyd Circuit Court serve all those who come before it equally. Ordering the statue moved would go a long way towards doing so.
Graf is an attorney in Floyd County.