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Hanover still has some folks nostalgic for the Confederacy but even there it's waning due to the growing number of transplants.
It is interesting to see how cities change overtime due to transplants and their influence. The difficulty occurs when the state, rural areas, or older generations do everything they can to resist change (assuming that the change is progressive and not regressive).
And yet, besides your "carefully selected" articles, nobody who knows Richmond would call it Old South. The area you claim to know about around VCU has no resemblance to anything "Old South" besides the memorials...
Everybody keeps talking about these museums. Mutiny, do you recall myself and another poster, conversing with you a few years ago, stating the Confederate history seems to be a much bigger topic on here than on the ground with Richmonders? I also recall stating that I've both welcomed and met acquaintances who were transplants or visitors to Richmond, of various backgrounds, and not a single person ever asked me about the Confederate history, monuments, museums?
I maintain both points, to this day, I've yet to have an acquaintance kick off an interest or so much as a conversation in that stuff. Not a single person. It's all there if somebody wants to see it, but seriously, you can live in Richmond and never have a conversation about the ****; you can live in Richmond and while you might "know" the monuments and signage are there, you don't really "see" them. This idea that there's a "reminder" of that period in the city, is reflected by journalists writing listenable stories, and isn't an accurate depiction of what the average Richmonder experiences and sees. This obsession to relate Richmond to that long ago period is annoying, what other sizable city is defined by a 5-year period in its entire history?
To be clear, the Charlottesville incident created a dialogue surrounding the Confederacy in many places that is atypical. I lived in Richmond before then, topic never came up in my circles, not even with native Richmonders...
My perspective is that people are moreso filled with complacency. Those that are pro-statues etc. play on that sentiment, 'no reason to rile things up'. Those that are against the statues seemingly are screaming into an empty room. At the end of the day, most people feel like that's the way it is and that's the way it will always be (pointing to my earlier statement about the confederacy being ingrained into the culture of Greater Richmond). That being said, I know quite a few black Richmonders (which is the majority of the city population-wise) that view the glorification of the confederacy as a reminder of their oppression but just deal with it.
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Originally Posted by Deeman804
My perspective is that people are moreso filled with complacency. Those that are pro-statues etc. play on that sentiment, 'no reason to rile things up'. Those that are against the statues seemingly are screaming into an empty room. At the end of the day, most people feel like that's the way it is and that's the way it will always be (pointing to my earlier statement about the confederacy being ingrained into the culture of Greater Richmond). That being said, I know quite a few black Richmonders (which is the majority of the city population-wise) that view the glorification of the confederacy as a reminder of their oppression but just deal with it.
Richmond is no longer majority black and hasn't been for a couple years now; blacks are still the largest plurality. I've read in the RTD that there are black Richmonders who view the monuments/memorials as a glorification of oppression. The topic never came up in my circle amongst Richmonders from any background...
I also don't think the people against the statues are the loudest people in the room, again reverting back to the point that I never so much as had a conversation about it. Maybe if you asked people....I do recall around Spring 2016, a handful of Confederate loyalists were pitching/protesting outside the Colonial Heights courthouse, and that made the rounds on social media. But everybody knows the further out areas have greater and more public displays of Confederate sympathy. I've never heard of a demonstration like this all my years in and Richmond, which is kinda my point--->CSA backers are by and large mostly non-Richmonders; museums dedicated to that era draw in people interested in that era only (even in the late-90s/early 00s, schools were not giving field trips to the CSA museums or monuments, and we literally had field trips to every other museum or landmark in Richmond); there is hardly any Confederate sentiment in the city of Richmond, where is it? It's not Downtown, it's not Uptown, you don't see it on the East End or the Northside or the Southside. My biggest guess would be with the old-money, more established West End families? I haven't seen it but that would be the only guess...
I just think you're mischaracterizing the city. The Confederate thing is a topic of historical discussion and not much more, I think many Richmonders would disagree with your assertion that it "defines" the city; you'd definitely be the first Richmonder around here to hold that opinion...
Richmond is no longer majority black and hasn't been for a couple years now; blacks are still the largest plurality. I've read in the RTD that there are black Richmonders who view the monuments/memorials as a glorification of oppression. The topic never came up in my circle amongst Richmonders from any background...
I also don't think the people against the statues are the loudest people in the room, again reverting back to the point that I never so much as had a conversation about it. Maybe if you asked people....I do recall around Spring 2016, a handful of Confederate loyalists were pitching/protesting outside the Colonial Heights courthouse, and that made the rounds on social media. But everybody knows the further out areas have greater and more public displays of Confederate sympathy. I've never heard of a demonstration like this all my years in and Richmond, which is kinda my point--->CSA backers are by and large mostly non-Richmonders; museums dedicated to that era draw in people interested in that era only (even in the late-90s/early 00s, schools were not giving field trips to the CSA museums or monuments, and we literally had field trips to every other museum or landmark in Richmond); there is hardly any Confederate sentiment in the city of Richmond, where is it? It's not Downtown, it's not Uptown, you don't see it on the East End or the Northside or the Southside. My biggest guess would be with the old-money, more established West End families? I haven't seen it but that would be the only guess...
I just think you're mischaracterizing the city. The Confederate thing is a topic of historical discussion and not much more, I think many Richmonders would disagree with your assertion that it "defines" the city; you'd definitely be the first Richmonder around here to hold that opinion...
To be clear, my experiences are for both the city of Richmond and its suburbs, which I consider to be one area to be one cultural entity (if you disagree, that's fair). I do think that the adoration for the confederacy is more prevalent in the suburbs than the young neighborhoods and the black neighborhoods closer in. As for displays of the confederacy, this isn't a daily thing however it happens. I believe around last year around the holidays, I drove past a large Sons of the Confederates demonstration in front of the VFMA on Boulevard, smack in the middle of town.
I went to schools in the late 90's/early 00's as well. though they may not have been having field trips to certain sites, they did celebrate Lee-Jackson-King day when I was in school in Henrico County (can't remember if I did in the City of Richmond). For those unfamiliar that would be Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Martin Luther King, which was the day off from school that they merged with the federal MLK holiday. The compromise is for the state to celebrate Lee-Jackson on a different day which is still a thing to this day.
The display you saw on Boulevard was a reaction to the confederate flag being removed from the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts over a decade ago (the site of the museum was a retirement camp for confederate veterans and widows). The “flaggers” are still active and still delusional (there’s no historic context for the flag to be on that site, the camp was established after the war and never had a flag, other than American, until the 1960’s...the centennial).
For those who disagree that Richmond and Baltimore are in the same cultural region, which cities do you think are the most similar to Richmond and Baltimore respectively?
For those who disagree that Richmond and Baltimore are in the same cultural region, which cities do you think are the most similar to Richmond and Baltimore respectively?
Richmond is much more similar to Washington DC, though all 3 cities are mid atlantic.
"By the late 1850s, Virginia could claim 4,841 manufacturing establishments, making it fifth among the states in this category"
Industrial and Commercial Opportunity in Richmond
A French visitor in 1837 observed that Richmond “aspires to be a metropolis . . . by the great works which it is executing . . . canals, railroads, water-works, huge mills, workshops, for which the fall in the river affords an almost unlimited motive power"
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