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BREAKING EXCLUSIVE

Norfolk will ask a judge to let it move Confederate monument

By Ryan Murphy
Staff writer
Apr 4, 2019

Steve Earley | The Virginian-Pilot

Protesters gather and chant slogans at the base of the confederate monument in downtown Norfolk on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017.

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NORFOLK

Attorneys for the city have announced plans to file a challenge to the state law they argue is holding
Norfolk back from moving a Confederate monument out of downtown.

This comes as lawsuit filed by two men seeking to force the city to remove the monument was
delayed Thursday.

That lawsuit, filed by activists Roy Perry-Bey and Ronald Green against Norfolk’s City Council in
late March, asks the court to force the city to follow through on a resolution the council passed in
August 2017 to move the 80-foot-tall monument from its current location on East Main Street.

The resolution, passed in the wake of the Charlottesville Unite The Right demonstration that drew
thousands and resulted in the death of couterprotester Heather Heyer , expressed the council’s
desire to move the monument to Elmwood Cemetery. That summer, Norfolk and other Hampton
Roads cities saw their own demonstrations, with hundreds protesting against Confederate
monuments throughout the region.

The resolution, however, noted the city would proceed “as soon as the governing state law clearly
permits it.”

The state code at issue makes it illegal to move war monuments, including those dedicated to the
Confederacy , and Norfolk officials have said conflicting rulings in recent cases on the issue gave
them pause.

In Danville , a court ruled in 2015 that anything installed in a Virginia city before 1998 was not
protected by the law, which applied only to counties until state legislators expanded it to cover cities
in 1997.

The Virginia Supreme Court declined to review the case, which Perry-Bey points to as one of
several precedents giving Norfolk all the legal clearance it needs to move ahead with the removal of
the monument.

Norfolk’s monument was completed in 1907.

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Courtesy of The Sargeant Memorial Collection

Sept. 6, 1930, photograph of Norfolk's Confederate monument.

In 2017, Norfolk officials said they wanted to wait for the Virginia Supreme Court to weigh in on the
dispute over two statues of Confederate generals in Charlottesville. But that case has turned into a
protracted and thorny legal battle.

As the Charlottesville case has dragged on and the new lawsuit against the city has cropped up,
Norfolk’s city attorney says he will move forward within the next couple of weeks with a
court petition challenging the state law directly.

“The statute being the impediment, we’re going to attack the constitutionality of the statute and urge
the interpretation of the Danville court, not the Charlottesville court,” said City Attorney
Bernard Pishko .

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The law violates the 1st Amendment’s freedom of speech clause, Pishko said, because the restriction
is based on the content of the monument. He also said it also violates the 5th Amendment because it
deprives the city of the right to use its property how it wants.

What the court decides could inform how the controversial monuments are dealt with in other
Virginia cities.

During a hearing in Norfolk Circuit Court on Thursday, Perry-Bey said that all sounded like a delay
tactic from a city that has had two years to challenge the law.

“For them to waltz into court and say, ‘We’re looking at this,’ it’s hogwash,” Perry-Bey said after the
hearing. “For the city to play this game, it’s offensive, it’s hurtful and it’s too painful to live under.”

For the moment, Perry-Bey and Green’s suit against the city is on hold. Norfolk Circuit Court Judge
Mary Jane Hall continued the motion for an injunction against Norfolk on Thursday, saying the
city hadn’t been served with the suit in time to adequately respond.

Perry-Bey said they expect to be back in the courtroom in a few weeks.

Ryan Murphy, 757-446-2299, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com

MORE INFORMATION

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Ryan Murphy
Reporter

Ryan Murphy covers the city of Norfolk. He is a native of Hampton Roads and spent 3½ years at the Daily Press in Newport
News before coming to the Pilot in January 2017.

ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com

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