Va Flaggers Update - Heritage Rally/VMFA

Va Flaggers Update - Heritage Rally/VMFA Mass Flagging Saturday, February 25th
FOR PUBLIC RELEASE - PLEASE FORWARD

ATTENTION ALL CONFEDERATES!!!
HERITAGE RALLY, February 25, 2012 – Richmond, Virginia

To everyone interested in Advancing the Colors in the Capital of the Confederacy on February 25th, 2012, who is not a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans or United Daughters of the Confederacy, OR those who are but do not have a uniform or Hoop dress to march in official formation, OR whose Chapter/Camp/organization is not planning on participating… - Come on up and Join the Virginia Flaggers! We have a place in the parade line and welcome you…and your flag!

Meet us at the DMV parking lot on Broad Street between 10:00 and 10:30. Parade steps off at 11:00 and ends at the RE Lee Statue, where there will be a Heritage Rally from 12:00 - 1:30.

For more information and a parade map, visit this WEBSITE...

Mass Flagging of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The Virginia Flaggers will be holding a mass flagging of the VMFA all day, and invite all parade and rally participants to spend some time with us on the sidewalk surrounding the museum. Join us before and/or after the parade and rally as we begin our 24th week of protesting the discriminatory and illegal actions of the VMFA. We will be out on the Boulevard from 8:00 a.m. to dusk.

Twenty years after Gen. Robert E. Lee rode into Appomattox and surrendered his tattered army, ending the War Between the States, a memorial chapel was built in Richmond in memory of the 260,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the conflict. The Pelham Chapel – Confederate War Memorial is designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S., and has been granted the status of Confederate Monument by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The organ in the chapel was donated by a group of Union veterans from Lynn, Mass. One of the contributors to the soldiers' home that surrounded the chapel was Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. And a Union private from Massachusetts donated his annual pension to support the home.

Confederate flags had flown over the grounds since the opening of the Old Soldiers Home in 1885. Those flags did not trouble the Union soldiers who donated the organ to the chapel; nor did they trouble Ulysses S. Grant. They were placed there by Confederate Veterans, to memorialize the Confederate dead, and honor the living.

Fast forward 150 years…on the eve of the Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the War Between the States, June 1st, 2010, Confederate Battle Flags were forcibly removed from the Confederate War Memorial by a restriction in the lease renewal, at the insistence of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

This is in direct violation of Virginia law, which clearly states: “it shall be unlawful for the authorities of the locality, or any other person or persons, to disturb or interfere with any monuments or memorials so erected, or to prevent its citizens from taking proper measures and exercising proper means for the protection, preservation and care of same. For purposes of this section, "disturb or interfere with" includes removal of, damaging or defacing monuments or memorials, or, in the case of the War Between the States, the placement of Union markings or monuments on previously designated Confederate memorials or the placement of Confederate markings or monuments on previously designated Union memorials.” (§ 15.2-1812)

As citizens of Virginia and descendants of Confederate soldiers who gallantly answered Virginia’s call to defend her, we demand that the VMFA remove these blatantly prejudicial restrictions and allow the Confederate Battle Flags to once again fly on the Confederate War Memorial.

Flagging the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Flagging the VMFA - Part II

If you have any questions about either event, or need more information, please contact us at vaflagger@comcast.net

RETURN the flags!
RESTORE the honor!
See you on the boulevard!

Susan Hathaway
Va Flaggers