Virginia

Youngkin appoints Confederate statue defender to historic resources board

By Gregory S. Schneider
July 15, 2022 at 5:58 p.m. EDT

RICHMOND — Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has appointed a historian to the state Board of Historic Resources who has defended the state’s Confederate monuments and condemned their destruction as a “dangerous” rewriting of history. ... Ann Hunter McLean of Richmond, the former head of a Christian school, told an online publication that she believes Virginia’s heritage is “under attack” as she begins serving on the board, which oversees state historic-site designations. ... Last year, as the last vestiges of Richmond’s Confederate monuments were being taken down in the wake of social justice protests, McLean lamented the loss.

[Robert E. Lee statue is removed in Richmond after months of protest and legal resistance]

“This whole tragedy is that these statues were built to tell the true story of the American South to people 500 years from now,” McLean said to a Richmond radio host on Dec. 23, 2021, after state archivists opened a time capsule found under the site where the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee once stood on Monument Avenue. “People want to destroy the evidence of that story,” she continued, saying the Civil War was fought for the “sovereignty of each state and constitutional law.”

{snip}

McLean did not respond Friday to an email and a phone message requesting comment. She was quoted in the online publication Virginia Star as saying in an interview that she was uncertain whether her role on the board would involve decisions regarding monuments. ... “But I am not into destroying people’s fine art. I think there’s something cosmically wrong with doing that under any circumstances,” she said, adding that she is particularly interested in overseeing the language on state historical markers.

Approving and revising those markers is one of the primary functions of the historic resources board, which consists of seven people appointed by the governor. The board meets jointly with the State Review Board four times a year to consider nominations to the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. It also holds easements at historic sites around the state.

{snip}

By Gregory S. Schneider
Greg Schneider covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was The Washington Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also covered aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry for The Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/SchneiderG