Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger this week signed into law a bill that ends state tax exemptions for several Confederate organizations.<\/p>\n
HB167<\/a> reverses a segregation era carve-out in the state\u2019s tax code that has benefitted the United Daughters of the Confederacy and other pro-Confederate groups since the 1950s.<\/p>\n A History of State Support for Confederate Monuments<\/p>\n The new law remedies Virginia\u2019s longstanding support for groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. These groups have installed hundreds of Confederate memorials<\/a> that glorify the Confederacy\u2019s fight to preserve slavery by framing Southern secession as an effort to defend local autonomy and states\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n During the post-Reconstruction era of racial terror, Confederate monuments and memorials played a vital role in restoring the racial hierarchy that would continue to dominate life in the American South and influence thinking on racial equality nationwide.<\/p>\n Scores of new Confederate monuments were added to the Southern landscape in the 1950s and \u201860s, often in direct response to federal desegregation efforts.<\/p>\n These monuments were put in place \u201cto show African Americans and certain individuals, certain communities, that they were second-class citizens,\u201d Delegate Alex Askew, who sponsored HB167, told<\/a> WHRO.<\/p>\n Virginia has more Confederate monuments than any other state in the country.<\/p>\n During this era, Virginia provided significant financial support for the UDC, including tax breaks, as \u201cpart of a wave of resistance to racial integration and civil rights efforts in the commonwealth,\u201d WHRO wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1950, Virginia Gov. John S. Battle signed a deed<\/a> giving the UDC land in Richmond to build its headquarters\u2014a marble-clad building reportedly<\/a> valued at about $4.7 million today.<\/p>\n Two years later, the General Assembly explicitly exempted the UDC from the state recordation tax, which is levied when property sales are registered for the public record. The UDC\u2019s Virginia division is the only organization singled out<\/a> by name in this section of the tax code.<\/p>\n Lawmakers also provided tax exemptions for real and personal property owned by the Virginia Division of the UDC, the General Organization of the UDC, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Incorporated, saving the UDC an estimated $57,000 a year in property tax on its Richmond headquarters alone, according<\/a> to The New York Times.<\/p>\n The new law ends more than 75 years of state support for efforts to romanticize slavery, glorify the Confederacy, and enforce Jim Crow segregation. Rather than \u201cproviding tax relief to historically pro-slavery institutions,\u201d Mr. Askew said<\/a> in 2024, ending the exemptions is part of a \u201cfairer, more inclusive tax policy that truly reflects our commitment to equality and progress.\u201d<\/p>\n The UDC had about $2.1 million in revenue and about $1.1 million in expenses in 2025, the Times reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n These groups \u201chelp glorify the Confederacy and essentially, I believe, have whitewashed the commonwealth\u2019s history,\u201d Mr. Askew told<\/a> WHRO in January. \u201cIt\u2019s truthfully time to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Moving Forward From Our Dark Past<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Spanberger\u2019s signing of [HB167] is a proud moment and an important step forward for Virginia,\u201d Mr. Askew said<\/a> in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n The governor also signed into law a bill that discontinues specialty license plates featuring Robert E. Lee and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, The New York Times reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n She sent back to the Assembly with recommendations a bill<\/a> to establish a task force to recommend changes to, among other things, distance the Virginia Military Institute from the Lost Cause narrative that asserted the Civil War was not about slavery, minimized the Confederacy\u2019s military defeat, and celebrated the South\u2019s triumph over Reconstruction.<\/p>\n The effort to end the use of Confederate names and monuments to promote the Lost Cause and enforce segregation is not limited to Virginia\u2019s elected officials.<\/p>\n When the school board in the Shenandoah Valley reinstated the names of two schools originally christened for Confederate generals, Black students sued, arguing that<\/a> the school board named the schools for Confederate generals\u2014who not only fought for slavery but were outspoken about their racist belief that Black people were not equal to white people\u2014in order \u201cto make it very clear that Black students were not welcome.\u201d The case is still pending.<\/p>\n Virginia\u2019s effort to truthfully confront the legacy of slavery and remedy its past support for Confederate groups stands in stark contrast with the federal government\u2019s moves to erase that history and restore Confederate monuments<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has ordered the removal of content<\/a> related to slavery at several national parks and pressured<\/a> the Smithsonian Institution to remove exhibits that, the president said<\/a>, focus on \u201chow bad Slavery was.\u201d<\/p>\n And last year, the Army reversed a congressionally mandated, multimillion-dollar effort to remove Confederate names from military bases and changed base names<\/a> to those that honored secessionists who fought against the United States to preserve slavery and white supremacy.<\/p>\n But Virginia is not alone\u2014other states<\/a> and private museums<\/a> are working to preserve history, citing the importance of confronting the difficult truths about our past.<\/p>\n