MATHEWS COUNTY, Va. — The debate over who should own the land where a Confederate monument sits is unfolding in Mathews County.
On the Middle Peninsula Tuesday night, the Mathews County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing, giving the community a chance to sound off on a proposal to transfer the public land where the monument has sat since 1912 to a private group.
At times, the meeting got heated Tuesday, with many residents chanting.
Some people were wearing green and waving green papers. They were against deeding public property to a private group.
A draft deed on the county's website proposes the land be deeded to the Mathews War Memorial Preservation Inc. It's a private group registered by David Fauver who is a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans.
"It’s in jeopardy, not because the board that sits here now wants to do something with it. It’s in jeopardy because if the board that sits here now doesn’t do something with it, then it’s going to be destroyed in the future. We formed a corporation with five tenets to strictly keep that memorial as it is and where it is and safe. It cannot last if it stays in the hands of government,” Fauver said.
The Mathews County NAACP said the Board of Supervisors addressed their concerns.
"We asked that they not deed the property to the Sons of the Confederate or the UDC. We also asked that they not allow the confederate flags be flown on and around the statue. Those two things have been addressed in the deed," said Edith Turner, the president of the Mathews County NAACP.
Some residents are in favor of the land being deeded to a private group.
"This is a memorial, a grave marker to memorialize the dead," one speaker said before the board of supervisors "I want that memorial to be there until Jesus Christ comes back. We want this to be deeded to this entity is because of the precedence all over the country."
"Please protect this monument. I ask you to vote to deed it to a private entity so it will be guaranteed protection," another speaker said to the board.
"Do not deed public land to special interest groups. It is undemocratic, unpatriotic and unconstitutional," one speaker said.
"I think it should remain exactly where it is, under the control of the county as it has been for more than 100 years," another speaker said.
Tuesday's meeting ended with no vote. The board said there needs to be more discussion before the county deeds the land to any private group.
Last year, Mathews County residents voted in a referendum on whether to preserve the Confederate statue. Eighty percent of voters chose to keep the statue in place, but some worried that the monument’s prominent public location still isn't safe.
In a Sept. 21 public hearing, many Mathews County residents had mixed views on deeding the land to a private entity.
