1600 Monument Ave., Richmond
On May 29, 1890, to direct development west of downtown while also delineating white space, the city erected a sixty-foot statue of confederate general Robert E. Lee here.
John Mitchell, Jr., editor of the African American newspaper the Richmond Planet, presciently noted that the labor of Black men helped to transport and erect the monument and “should the time come, will be there to take it down.”
130 years later, on June 1, 2020, police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of peaceful protestors gathered at the site. Protests across the country, including Richmond, began five days earlier in the wake of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes. As activist Kalia Harris noted, “Here, in the fallen capital of the confederacy, when we ask what makes us feel truly safe and what we need to protect ourselves from harm and to heal from harm when it’s done to us, it is clear that we don’t need more police and punishment but material resources, reparations, and a move away from a carceral system that doesn’t prevent or end so-called crime…We know that the safest communities are not the ones with more police; they are the ones with more resources and equitable access for all to those resources.”
After police action here, this space transformed into a site of protest, celebration, and community reclamation. Community members renamed it Marcus-David Peters circle and erected a sign declaring “Welcome to Beautiful Marcus-David Peters Circle, Liberated by the People MMXX.” The site commemorated the life of Peters, a 24 year old African American man who Richmond police killed as he suffered a mental health crisis in May 2018. Demands for a Marcus Alert system that would send mental health professionals to respond first in a mental health crisis, instead of police, gained national attention in the aftermath of his death.
The circle became a vibrant community gathering space. People sold hot dogs and water, played basketball on makeshift courts, and dancers and musicians performed regularly. People covered the statue’s base with slogans and signs in support of racial justice and police abolition. They created makeshift memorials for those killed by police. Local artists projected resistance art after dark nightly. The circle also became more accessible. Richmonders spray painted a crosswalk onto the street and created ramps for wheelchairs, making it both more pedestrian friendly and accessible for people who use chairs for the first time in its history. At times, police and others destroyed some of this material, but almost always, destroyed or stolen material reappeared, often in larger and improved forms. In October 2020, the New York Times named the site the number one site of protest art in the U.S. since World War II. It remains a contested space of negotiation between community members and local officials.
Soon after, the city cordoned off this space and after a series of legal challenges, the Lee statue was removed in September 2021. As of 2023, the city has hired a Black landscaping company to temporarily maintain the space. The future of the circle, and to what extent a diverse group of citizens and activists will be involved in its planning, remains unclear.
To learn more:
- Gordon, Wyatt. “A New Kind of Placemaking Has Transformed Richmond’s Monument Avenue.” Greater Greater Washington, August 24, 2020.
- La Force, Thessaly, “The 25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art since World War II.” The New York Times Style Magazine, October 15, 2020.
Image: Marcus-David Peters Circle prior to the removal of the statue, 2020. Courtesy of Kim Lee Schmidt.