Williams: On monuments, we're still removing and improving

An American president has reinstalled a toppled Confederate monument in, of all places, the nation's capital. But during recent weeks in Virginia, it seemed a lot like 2020 without the street protests. In Capitol Square on Aug. 28, three remaining Confederate statues — of Stonewall Jackson, Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire and William "Extra Billy" Smith — were removed for transfer to the nonprofit Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation. Left amid the empty plinths and pedestals in Capitol Square is a monument featuring George Washington and other Founding Fathers, memorials to Virginia women and civil rights, and a tribute to Virginia's Native nations. On Aug. 29, Fort Monroe unveiled the African Landing Memorial at the site where the first recorded African captives, from Angola, arrived in English North America in 1619 at what was called Point Comfort. The sculpture by Brian R. Owens depicts what historical records say was the first African family and child there — Antony, Isabella and baby William. Fort Monroe, held by the Union forces, would later serve as a beacon of freedom for thousands of Black people escaping bondage during the Civil War. Capping off this remarkable weekend in Virginia was the unveiling of a new historical marker in Shockoe Bottom on Aug. 30. "Gabriel's Uprising" updates a 2004 marker with erroneous information about the Henrico County blacksmith who led a foiled uprising of the enslaved on Aug. 30, 1800. Educator and researcher Lenora McQueen provided new evidence that the gallows where Gabriel was executed was not in Shockoe Bottom, but more likely near present-day South First Street and the Downtown Expressway. His burial was probably on Cary Street at the Richmond Baptist Church burying ground, which is no longer visible. McQueen, Virginia Commonwealth University historian Ryan Smith and Ana Edwards, chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, wrote the text for the new marker. A General Assembly replacement fund covered the cost of the new marker, said Joanna Wilson Green, an archaeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Ana Edwards, chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, called the new Gabriel marker the latest evidence of change in Richmond's public history landscape. On the 226th anniversary of Gabriel's Uprising, the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project held a ceremony at the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground. 'Every new generation of person who has encountered this history and the work that we have done has changed the public history landscape of the city of Richmond," said Edwards, chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. "It is no longer the city of Confederate and Jim Crow monuments. "It is no longer a city that is only understood to be the former capital of the Confederacy. It is even not only the city where Patrick Henry gave that speech up there on Church Hill, the 'Give me liberty or give me death' speech ... which embodied so many of the ideas about resistance, about claiming humanity." Richmond, and America by extension, is understood through the story of Gabriel and all the people with him, who believed in those ideas enough to put their lives on the line to end the institution of slavery, she said. Their aspirations would be the seed of small victories and phenomenal collective progress. 'And that progress, by helping Black people move forward in this country, helped other people move forward in this country," Edwards said. "That is probably one of the most essential ideas that goes to the heart of what we always call the contradictions of the United States, the perplexities of the United States," she said. Pamela Bingham, left, a direct descendant of Gabriel, unveiled the marker with Ana Edwards, chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. To the beat of a drum, Edwards and educator-activist Ram Bhagat retold the story of Gabriel's rebellion. 'He was a tall, imposing blacksmith. He was born in 1776, the year of the American Revolution, the year that proclaimed all men are created equal, words that he evidently took to heart,' she said. Gabriel, they said, was also likely influenced by Haiti's successful revolution against their French enslavers. The plan, not originally developed by Gabriel, involved the recruitment of an army of enslaved men who would march on Richmond, set fire to the Rocketts Landing warehouse district as a diversion, and seize guns from the city's armory. Gov. James Monroe would be kidnapped and held hostage until he agreed to their demands for an end to slavery. They'd march behind the banner "Death or Liberty" — the slogan of the Haitian revolution. The rebellion was foiled by torrential rains on the appointed day, which flooded local creeks and streams, and by two co-conspirators who divulged the plan to an enslaver. They named the names of the 25 men, including Gabriel, who were executed between Sept. 12 and Oct. 10, 1800. Then, about 65 people walked the short distance to the new marker on Broad Street, near the entrance ramp to Interstate 95, where they were joined by Pamela Bingham, a direct descendant of Gabriel, whose father, former Virginia State University provost Haskell S. Bingham, spoke at the Oct. 10, 2004, historic marker unveiling. The sculpture at the African Landing Memorial by Brian Owens features the first documented African family in English North America. Bingham read her father's words from that day: "We have come to this place to unveil a marker, not only to commemorate Gabriel, the slave patriot and freedom fighter, but also the many enslaved Africans who died with hope for liberty." 'We must maintain the truth in our history," Bingham said, expressing her appreciation of the work of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, keeper of the preservation flame in Shockoe Bottom, including its work with other activists to remove the asphalt parking lot covering the burial ground. 'We must continue to speak truth to power, and we must continue to be honest in our representation of history," Bingham said. "So we will not let them tear these markers down." Sedition is in season. Fascism is on the march. Two and a half branches of U.S. government have gone rogue or gone missing. State Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, spoke Saturday at the African Landing Memorial at Fort Monroe. Donald Trump functions more like the second president of the Confederate States of America than the 47th president of the U.S., carrying out the tragic American tradition of pardoning insurrectionists. White supremacist mythology remains a clear and present danger. Haitian immigrants, whose ancestors inspired Gabriel and others, are being punished to this day with slanderous lies about eating pets, electronic ankle monitors and deportation. More than monuments, memorials, and markers are at stake. If we don't speak truth to power and guard our history jealously, American democracy will topple. Michael Paul Williams Michael Paul Williams (804) 649-6815 mwilliams@timesdispatch.com Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! During the late 1980s and early '90s, I covered the Vinton Town Council as a freelancer for The Roanoke Times' Vinton edition of its 'Neighbor… Socialism gets rebranded every generation with new faces and a catchy slogan. 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