We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Titus Kaphar, Behind the Myth of Benevolence, oil on canvas, 2014. (above) Thomas Jefferson Monument, Rotunda, University of Virginia, 1910. (right) Thomas Jefferson sculpture, Williamsburg, circa 2000. Unite the Right rally, University of Virginia, Friday night, August 11, 2017. In Jefferson Country today Artwork by Zoe Matthiessen, New Haven Independent, 2017. In Jefferson Country: private yard facing public street, Old Forest Road, Lynchburg, Virginia, November 2017. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson Monuments were tarped on August 23, 2017 and remain so in Charlottersville, Virginia in memory of Heather Heyer. The final fate of the monuments is still unknown. Examples of small-scaled memorials placed in Charlottesville (upper left) and on the campus of the University of Virginia (left and upper right) to include African American contributions to the city and university. Höweler+Yoon et al., rendering for the Memorial to the Enslaved, University of Virginia, to be completed 2019, in time to mark the end of the university’s bicentennial commemorations. Gathering Table, a public art installation designed by Sheila Levrant de Bretteville for Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, 2016. Script style is derived from the Priscilla Hemmings gravestone, carved by Peter Hemmings. Unite the Right Rally, University of Virginia, November 2017.

Protests seen at the University of Virginia during Bicentennial events, October 2017.