HAMPTON, Va. _ Calling slavery an atrocity, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam presented new interpretive signs on Fort Monroe that explain the history behind an iron arch now stripped of any reference to the onetime president of the Confederacy.
"When we commemorate the events of 1619, we cannot forget the atrocities of slavery that also began in Virginia," Northam said during a news conference Tuesday. "Our story has remained complex and ... we know the racial injustice lives on in virtually every facet of American life. ... It is visible in the monuments erected to people who made it their mission to institutionalize discrimination and oppression. Having a memorial to glorify the president of the Confederacy ... it is not just inappropriate, it is offensive and it is wrong."
Northam delivered his remarks just days after signing an agreement with the Department of Historic Resources to have the letters removed from the arch located at Bernard and Ruckman roads. Contractors removed the letters Friday.
In attendance to hear Northam were Hampton city officials, Fort Monroe Authority board members, state officials, other concerned stakeholders and a few bystanders.
"It's long overdue," said Gaylene Kanoyton, president of the Hampton branch NAACP. "Jefferson Davis wasn't a part of Fort Monroe other than being imprisoned for treason. This was built during the Jim Crow era."
Cynthia Hites, a Hampton resident, comes to Fort Monroe every day and fondly remember playing underneath the arch.
"For me it represents a part of my childhood," Hites said, who became overcome with emotion. "It's just simplistic. It's a part of my history that is removed."
Christine Gergely, a representative for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group commissioned the U.S. Army to have the arch built in 1956, was not present during the news conference.
Her husband, Jack Gergely, was, and voiced his displeasure with the governor and Fort Monroe Authority executive director Glenn Oder.
Joining Northam with remarks was state Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, who noted that she is a survivor of an ancestor who arrived 400 years ago.
Fort Monroe Board of Trustee member Rex Ellis said, "This is an American story, one that does not reside in one historical moment, but many."
He referenced that the fort was built by hundreds of enslaved workers who "paved the way for freedom for their descendants."
Those descendants, he said, included Frank Baker, Sheppard Mallory and James Townsend, the first slaves to seek asylum at Fort Monroe in 1861 and be considered contraband of war, essentially being freed.
Northam added that memorials like this arch built during Jim Crow and the civil rights movement that ended legal segregation "were placed in support of a revisionist version of history that was incorrect," he said.
The Confederate memorial is the first in Virginia that has been intentionally removed by the state, Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said in an email.
The interpretive signs are displayed in two black iron frames _ one at the foot of the hill on Bernard Road and the other on the ramparts.
One sign explains the arch's origins, its context and why the UDC wanted it built to commemorate Davis.
The other sign explains why the arch for some "conjures up a sense of heritage and history," while for others "it is a symbol of hate and highlights the intent to exclude African Americans from public life and civil liberties."
The arch, which stretches across a section of the terreplein, has in recent months drawn fire from critics.
They questioned the arch's presence in light of the coming 1619 anniversary and given Fort Monroe's historical context as a place where enslaved Africans in Virginia first sought freedom.
In April, Northam called for the arch to be dismantled a few months after a Hampton resident questioned its existence at the board of trustees meeting in February.
Fort Monroe's preservation officer, David Stroud, began working with the state to determine if removing the arch would adversely affect the property's designation as a national landmark and its listing on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Part of the review called for deeper scrutiny of the governing documents used to guide the stewardship of Fort Monroe, created after the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure.
The review also included a public comment period. More than 1,000 written and verbal comments were recorded.
Stroud ultimately recommended the letters be removed and added to the Casemate Museum collection with other artifacts about Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator, secretary of war and prisoner at Fort Monroe.
