RICHMOND, Va. – Two weeks after calling for the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue on Monument Avenue, Richmond mayoral candidate Joe Morrissey says he made a mistake.
“I don’t think I thought that through,” Morrissey said to CBS 6 Monday. “In my mind, I was generating a conversation.”
On September 26, Morrissey held a press conference saying the monument is "a political statue that glorified a failed political organization and championed a cause – slavery – that all Americans now find abhorrent."
“In hindsight, I was wrong… I was wrong,” he said. “What I think would be better is if we created a statue where you unify folks and brought them together.”
Morrissey suggested building a monument similar to one at the State Capitol that honors African-American Union and Confederate soldiers who united after the Civil War.
"I’m not perfect, I think I should have thought that one through better,” Morrissey said. “I think I was reacting because I was talking to so many people of color that really felt pain that there was a monument to an individual, a politician, who espoused a case, slavery, that many people find anathema.”
Virginia law prohibits localities from removing war monuments or memorials, but the law is murky.
For more on CBS 6's conversation with Morrissey, click here.
