(CNN) Virginia is one step closer to ending its tradition of honoring Confederate generals.
This week, the Virginia House voted to strike Lee-Jackson Day from the list of state holidays. The holiday, observed on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, honors Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson as "defenders of causes."
Both men owned slaves and fought to preserve slavery in the US.
In its place, the House bill proposed that the state replace it with Election Day , the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November, instead.
Gov. Ralph Northam included the measure in his 2020 legislative proposals. If Election Day becomes a state holiday, he said, it'll be easier for Virginians to vote.
JimBobDwayne on February 7th, 2020 at 15:21 UTC »
As a liberal that spent 10 years of my adult life living and working in VA. This makes me very happy.
East_ByGod_Kentucky on February 7th, 2020 at 15:19 UTC »
During the Civil War there was a saying among the people of the south/confederacy:
"I believe in God... But I have seen Robert E. Lee."
Lee's "complex" views on slavery spilled over into middle/lower class racial sentiments toward freedmen in the post-war south. The lazy notion that "I don't particularly like slavery/segregation... but what else are we supposed to do with such an 'inferior' race???"
People like Lee and some of his contemporaries were at least genuine in that sentiment. The vast majority of everyone else from then until now used/use it as an excuse to just continue being racists. It gave poor whites a feeling of superiority over someone, regardless of the fact that they were an afterthought to the wealthy landowners in the south, save for when they needed to use them as political pawns to keep their grip on power.
For a few hundred years, it was beaten into the brain of every white commoner that if slaves/blacks were given equality, they'd use it to rape and pillage and oppress the white man for their plight.
The grand irony of that is, it was essentially an admission that slaves/blacks were every bit as human as them, in that they would/might have a very human response to centuries of enslavement and horrific brutality.
Fuckin' slavery... another tool in history's toolbox for a handful of rich sociopaths to get richer, and then they used the fallout to keep the lowly peons fighting among themselves for another 2 centuries. It is so maddening.
Uther-Lightbringer on February 7th, 2020 at 14:38 UTC »
Way to go Virginia, mad props. Not only did they eliminate "State Racism Day!" they also made Election Day a holiday.
More states should do this,if the federal govt won't make it a holiday, make it a state holiday.