A new petition is asking for the removal of a Confederate monument in favor of a Missy Elliott statue. To which we say: shake your pom pom.
Nathan Coflin of Virginia posted a petition on Change.org asking local Portsmouth politicians to remove the 35-foot Confederate monument erected in the late 1800s for “the Confederate dead of Portsmouth and Norfolk County.” And he thinks a statue of the award-winning rapper and producer, who was born in the Virginia town, is the perfect replacement.
After all, Elliot has five Grammy awards to her name, more than 30 million albums sold and doesn’t stand for racism, the petition notes.
Getting this statue put up will be a lot of work and you may ask yourself is it worth it? I say yes and ask you to join me in letting us work it. Together we can put white supremacy down, flip it and reverse it. Let us come together in getting City Council to erect this statue in honor of Missy Elliott and all those in the great City of Portsmouth who work it each and every day. Ycamerpus Etihw!
Last week, protestors gathered around the monument in an effort get the obelisk moved from Court Street to the Cedar Grove Cemetery, local news station WAVY reported. Mayor John Rowe acknowledged that “we don’t need to continue fighting the Civil War” and said the dead will still be honored at a new location.
Coflin agrees.
“Missy is Portsmouth’s hometown icon,” Coflin told HuffPost. “The mayor of Portsmouth has already declared his support for moving the current monument from where it stands to a nearby cemetery where Confederate soldiers are buried. This will leave a void where the current one stands. Missy represents the diversity of Portsmouth and what hard work and perseverance can do. An inspiration to the town.”
As of publication time, the petition had 23,500 signatures of the 25,000 needed.
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