HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- The Confederate Hills Recreation Center in Henrico's Varina District will soon be renamed.
With the support of his fellow Board members, Varina Supervisor Tyrone Nelson proposed renaming the Confederate Hills Recreation Center to The Springs Recreation Center. The center at 302 Lee Ave. has been owned and operated by Henrico Recreation & Parks since 1994.
The Henrico Board of Supervisors agreed by consensus to change the name.
“Changing a name does not change history and is not a substitute for progress. But it is wrong for a county facility to be named for the Confederacy, which was based on the enslavement of black people and built on their backs," Nelson said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Paraphrasing Supervisor Nelson: Changing a name does not change history and is not a substitute for progress. But it is wrong for a county facility to be named for the Confederacy, which was based on the enslavement of black people and built on their backs.</p>— Henrico County Government (@HenricoNews) <a href="
“Removing the names from buildings does not erase history, but it does acknowledge that it was a heinous part of the past that should not serve as a daily reminder of the pain and tragedy that still impacts the lives of Black people today," Nelson said. "If we want to move forward we cannot continue to erect and display monuments of hate.”
