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Arthur Ashe statue vandalized with 'White Lives Matter' graffiti in Richmond
The lone tribute to a black man on Monument Avenue was vandalized Wednesday morning with “White Lives Matter” graffiti, amplifying concerns about racism and injustice in a city rocked by weeks of unrest.
It was a struggle to land the statue of Arthur Ashe, a civil rights activist and tennis icon, on the city promenade best known for its towering monuments to the Confederacy when it was erected 24 years ago.
His nephew, David Harris Jr., who successfully helped rename the city’s Boulevard for Ashe last year, said Wednesday that he was not surprised to hear his uncle’s statue had been targeted.
“There are people who have an agenda,” he said. “Some of them are still settling on hate and discord because they see the system changing before them, and they’re lacking influence and control over it.”
The tagging of the Ashe statue on Wednesday follows the removal and defacing of other city monuments in recent weeks — mostly tributes to the Confederacy — by people protesting racial injustice and police brutality. Woven into those collective actions is a belief that property matters less than human rights.
A white man wearing a blue shirt whom a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter observed spraying ‘White Lives Matter’ across the already-defaced base of the Ashe statue around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday described feelings of frustration.
Red counter-graffiti reading “BLM,” shorthand for “Black Lives Matter” — a movement opposing police violence — already covered the existing “WLM” tags.
“Don’t all lives matter?” he said, when asked why he spray-painted the Ashe statue. “I’m not a racist. I just don’t agree with people desecrating property.”
The man gave his name as “Everybody,” and said he is a graduate of the Benedictine College Preparatory School who lives in the Richmond area and South Carolina.
Since the start of nightly protests three weeks ago, Confederate statues have been covered in spray paint and by visual projections with Black Lives Matter and anti-police messages. Gov. Ralph Northam and Mayor Levar Stoney have also initiated plans to remove the remaining Confederate statues on Monument Avenue.
On Tuesday, protesters pulled down the Richmond Howitzers Monument, erected in 1892 to commemorate a Confederate artillery unit. The monument is at the intersection of Harrison Street and Grove Avenue, adjacent to Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park campus. Authorities moved it to a safe location later in the morning, according to a police news release.
It was the third Confederate statue and fourth statue overall taken down during protests in recent weeks. The other statues torn down were of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue, Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in Monroe Park, and Christopher Columbus in Byrd Park.
A Richmond native who also was renowned as an author and humanitarian activist, Ashe won the 1968 U.S. Open and 1970 Australian Open in addition to his Wimbledon title in 1975. He died in 1993 at the age of 49.
Chuck Richardson, a former member of the Richmond City Council who advocated for the erection of the Ashe statue following his death, said there was strong opposition to placing the statue on Monument Avenue at the time, with some in the community suggesting that it should instead be placed near the Byrd Park tennis courts where Ashe was barred from playing as a kid because he was black.
Richardson said Wednesday that he is worried that those opposed to the removal of Confederate monuments are seeking retribution by defacing the Ashe statue.
He said those concerned with the removal of Confederate statues should think critically of their legacy, and whether society should continue to honor men who fought to maintain racial slavery.
“Since we’ve grown and changed, we should embrace the removal of ill-conceived statues,” he said. “The statues are totally different. [The Confederate statues] support evil. The [Ashe statue] opposes it and promotes decency, respect, integrity and [unity].”
Two women who live nearby arrived about 11:40 a.m. to scrub the paint off the Ashe monument. The man returned to help remove the spray paint, but left within a few minutes after he was approached by reporters and bystanders.
As he left, the man said: “Everybody that’s paid to live here, they’re tired of seeing this bulls---.” He did not clarify whether he meant the Ashe statue, graffiti on city monuments or the ongoing protests.
Several witnesses said they were perturbed by his actions.
“This is not about white lives. This is about who has been harmed most,” said Betsy Milburn, one of the people who saw the man vandalizing the statue. “It’s been black lives who have been significantly hurt by what Monument Avenue represents: systemic racism that existed before and after the Civil War.”
Louise Lockett Gordon, one of the two women who came to clean the statue after a friend texted a picture of it, said the tagging of the Ashe statue is a provocation because of his activism against apartheid in South Africa and his contrast with the other statues on Monument Avenue.
“He’s a pillar of civil rights,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming for those other statues to come down.”
Arthur Ashe statue vandalized with 'White Lives Matter' graffiti in Richmond
The lone tribute to a black man on Monument Avenue was vandalized Wednesday morning with “White Lives Matter” graffiti, amplifying concerns about racism and injustice in a city rocked by
Arthur Ashe statue vandalized with 'White Lives Matter' graffiti in Richmond
- By C. Suarez Rojas | Richmond Times-Dispatch
- 6 hrs ago
The lone tribute to a black man on Monument Avenue was vandalized Wednesday morning with “White Lives Matter” graffiti, amplifying concerns about racism and injustice in a city rocked by weeks of unrest.
It was a struggle to land the statue of Arthur Ashe, a civil rights activist and tennis icon, on the city promenade best known for its towering monuments to the Confederacy when it was erected 24 years ago.
His nephew, David Harris Jr., who successfully helped rename the city’s Boulevard for Ashe last year, said Wednesday that he was not surprised to hear his uncle’s statue had been targeted.
“There are people who have an agenda,” he said. “Some of them are still settling on hate and discord because they see the system changing before them, and they’re lacking influence and control over it.”
The tagging of the Ashe statue on Wednesday follows the removal and defacing of other city monuments in recent weeks — mostly tributes to the Confederacy — by people protesting racial injustice and police brutality. Woven into those collective actions is a belief that property matters less than human rights.
A white man wearing a blue shirt whom a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter observed spraying ‘White Lives Matter’ across the already-defaced base of the Ashe statue around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday described feelings of frustration.
Red counter-graffiti reading “BLM,” shorthand for “Black Lives Matter” — a movement opposing police violence — already covered the existing “WLM” tags.
“Don’t all lives matter?” he said, when asked why he spray-painted the Ashe statue. “I’m not a racist. I just don’t agree with people desecrating property.”
The man gave his name as “Everybody,” and said he is a graduate of the Benedictine College Preparatory School who lives in the Richmond area and South Carolina.
Since the start of nightly protests three weeks ago, Confederate statues have been covered in spray paint and by visual projections with Black Lives Matter and anti-police messages. Gov. Ralph Northam and Mayor Levar Stoney have also initiated plans to remove the remaining Confederate statues on Monument Avenue.
On Tuesday, protesters pulled down the Richmond Howitzers Monument, erected in 1892 to commemorate a Confederate artillery unit. The monument is at the intersection of Harrison Street and Grove Avenue, adjacent to Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park campus. Authorities moved it to a safe location later in the morning, according to a police news release.
It was the third Confederate statue and fourth statue overall taken down during protests in recent weeks. The other statues torn down were of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue, Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in Monroe Park, and Christopher Columbus in Byrd Park.
A Richmond native who also was renowned as an author and humanitarian activist, Ashe won the 1968 U.S. Open and 1970 Australian Open in addition to his Wimbledon title in 1975. He died in 1993 at the age of 49.
Chuck Richardson, a former member of the Richmond City Council who advocated for the erection of the Ashe statue following his death, said there was strong opposition to placing the statue on Monument Avenue at the time, with some in the community suggesting that it should instead be placed near the Byrd Park tennis courts where Ashe was barred from playing as a kid because he was black.
Richardson said Wednesday that he is worried that those opposed to the removal of Confederate monuments are seeking retribution by defacing the Ashe statue.
He said those concerned with the removal of Confederate statues should think critically of their legacy, and whether society should continue to honor men who fought to maintain racial slavery.
“Since we’ve grown and changed, we should embrace the removal of ill-conceived statues,” he said. “The statues are totally different. [The Confederate statues] support evil. The [Ashe statue] opposes it and promotes decency, respect, integrity and [unity].”
Two women who live nearby arrived about 11:40 a.m. to scrub the paint off the Ashe monument. The man returned to help remove the spray paint, but left within a few minutes after he was approached by reporters and bystanders.
As he left, the man said: “Everybody that’s paid to live here, they’re tired of seeing this bulls---.” He did not clarify whether he meant the Ashe statue, graffiti on city monuments or the ongoing protests.
Several witnesses said they were perturbed by his actions.
“This is not about white lives. This is about who has been harmed most,” said Betsy Milburn, one of the people who saw the man vandalizing the statue. “It’s been black lives who have been significantly hurt by what Monument Avenue represents: systemic racism that existed before and after the Civil War.”
Louise Lockett Gordon, one of the two women who came to clean the statue after a friend texted a picture of it, said the tagging of the Ashe statue is a provocation because of his activism against apartheid in South Africa and his contrast with the other statues on Monument Avenue.
“He’s a pillar of civil rights,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming for those other statues to come down.”
Right? 
