Virginia Removes Final Confederate Monuments from Richmond Capitol Square

The Commonwealth of Virginia removed the final three Confederate monuments from Capitol Square in Richmond between August 28 and August 31, 2026. The statues depicted Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Governor William "Extra Billy" Smith, and surgeon Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire. The operation was mandated by the Virginia General Assembly during its 2026 session, with a spending plan allocating $1.8 million in the fiscal 2027–28 budget to facilitate the work.

This action concludes a multi-year effort to remove Confederate iconography from the city, a process that gained momentum during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and included the removal of monuments from Monument Avenue. The state has gifted the statues to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which will relocate them to battlefield sites to preserve and interpret the historic landscapes.

Supporters of the removal, including State Senator Mike Jones and former State Senator Adam Ebbin, argued the move changes who the state chooses to venerate and reflects an evolving identity for the Commonwealth. Conversely, the United Daughters of the Confederacy stated the monuments were intended as tributes to valor and sacrifice and should be displayed as the original donors intended so the public could learn from them.