Feb. 23, 2014

Va. House of Delegates Rejects Care for Slave Graves

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Virginia pays to care for the graves of soldiers who fought in the Civil War.Shouldn’t the state also care for the graves of the forgotten slaves over whom that terrible conflict was fought 150 yearsago?

“Yes,” is the right answer to Republican Delegate Robert G.“Bob” Marshall.That’s why he proposed a bill to set up an 11-member state commission to identify such graves, with the ultimate goal to provide state assistance to groups or organizations that maintain them.The bill, though, died in a Republican-dominated House committee Feb. 17, which Delegate Marshall called disappointing.

“We honor the memory of those who fought on both sidesand fail to honor the memory of those who occasioned that awfulstruggle,” the Prince William county delegate told the FreePress. “We ought to give those graves legal recognition in deathas we do those who fought.”

Delegate Marshall said the idea for caring for the graves of slaves came from Paul Goldman, a political analyst and a former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party. Goldman said that the “state treated slaves like property when they were alive. It is important for us to right this wrong as best we can and make sure they get the respect they deserve.”

This would not have cost much, Delegate Marshall said. A former history teacher, he envisioned volunteers from schools, heritage groups and the NAACP combing through archives toidentify slave burial grounds. He said, “This would have brought people together.”