[VAcourier] MOC to become Civil War Museum?????

[Virginia Division SCV Communication List]

Will the Museum of the Confederacy change its name to Civil War Museum???
Lexington, VA
February 15, 2007

The Lexington City Council met this evening to decide whether to further 
discussions with the Museum of the Confederacy which is considering 
Lexington as a new home.  The MOC has been plagued with financial 
difficulties for the past five years partially due to the ever growing 
presence of the VCU-MCV hospital complex and partly because of a lack of 
real problem solving initiatives.  The city council listened to 
presentations for over an hour beginning with officials from the city's 
tourism board which endorsed the proposed relocation followed by 
comments from at least a dozen citizens and one concerned citizens 
group.  Most of the testimony was in favor of the relocation of the 
museum from Richmond to the soon to be abandoned courthouse buildings on 
Lexington's Main Street, but at least one person forcefully opposed the 
relocation.  One speaker, W.B. 'Doc' Wilmore, presented nearly 500 
petition signatures to council supporting the plan.  A representative 
from Lexington Legacy, a group concerned with preserving the historic 
courts buildings, stated that a poll of their members showed over 70 
percent in favor and many simply had not yet formed an opinion.

There was at least one surprising twist in the evening.  Councilwoman 
Mimi Elrod, who has been vocally opposed to the museum's relocation, 
stated that S. Waite Rawls III, President and CEO of the museum told her 
that the museum would be willing to change the name of the 101 year old 
institution to something similar to American Civil War Museum.  Elrod 
further stated that based on her conversations with Rawls that she was 
open to further talks with the museum although she feels anything 
Confederate conjures up too many images of blacks being beaten and 
lynched in the Civil Rights movement.  Council went on to vote 
unanimously to enter into non binding talks with the museum about 
relocating to Lexington.

The question that remains is will the Museum of the Confederacy succumb 
to political correctness and change its name to just Civil War Museum?  
Will they do as some suggest and shift their focus away from the causes 
and effects of the war from the Southern perspective to a more 
"balanced" view including presenting the Northern side of the issue?  
The museum is already balanced enough as it has made strides to tell the 
full Southern story whether it is about aristocrats, generals, poor farm 
boy privates, or Southerners of African descent whether slave or free.

Brandon Dorsey
Lexington, Virginia
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