In the midst of widespread efforts to remove Confederate memorials, a similar change may be on the way for Richmond’s Capitol Square.

Calls have come to remove from Capitol grounds the statue of Harry F. Byrd Sr., a former U.S. senator, Virginia governor and arch-segregationist who helped lead Virginia’s infamous “Massive Resistance” campaign to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional.

The most recent initiative comes courtesy of Paul Goldman, a former Virginia Democratic Party chairman, who has filed a formal request with the Capitol Square Preservation Council to remove the statue.

Mr. Goldman stressed that the removal should be done in a “lawful fashion,” which he felt would be a fitting re- sponse to Mr. Byrd’s legacy, which includes “unlawfully” resisting federal orders to desegregate Virginia schools and a statewide “political machine” of white supremacy whose hold has lessened only in recent years.

“He is the epitome of separate but equal,” said Mr. Goldman, who initially spoke out against the statue in 2001. “There’s no reason for his statue to be there.”

Mr. Goldman’s request follows that of Delegate Jerrauld C. “Jay” Jones of Norfolk, a member of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.

Delegate Jones, a Democrat, is introducing a bill during the next General Assembly statue to have the Byrd statue removed. He cited legislation introduced in the last legislative session by Republican Delegate Wendell S. Walker of Lynchburg as a key inspiration.

At the time, Delegate Walker said his bill calling for the removal of the statue of Mr. Byrd, a Democrat, was meant to challenge the priorities of Democrats who supported legislation focused on the many Confederate statues across the state.

But rather than hesitating at the idea of removing a statue of a fellow Democrat, Democratic lawmakers were enthusiastic about the idea, prompting Delegate Walker to withdraw his bill from consideration.

“I have every intention of introducing a bill to bring the Harry Byrd statue down that currently stands on Capitol Square,” Delegate Jones told the

Free Press. “I look forward to having the conversations on the committees and I look forward to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle supporting the effort to bring that statue down.”

Delegate Walker’s unintentional actions also may have led to the approval of $50,000 in the revised state budget for the development of interpretive signs to be placed beside the statue about Mr. Byrd’s role as an architect of Massive Resistance. Officials fostered the shutdown of public schools in Prince Edward County and several other Virginia localities rather than desegregate.

Delegate Lamont Bagby, chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said he approves of the effort “to provide some context of how (Mr. Byrd) and his actions impacted the Commonwealth,” even if it doesn’t go far enough in addressing the statue’s presence in Capitol Square.

However, there is little word on any similar efforts to rid the inside and grounds of the State Capitol of multiple memorials to Confederates. That includes statues of Confederate Gens. Stonewall Jackson and William “Extra Billy” Smith and a life- sized statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in the Old House Chamber on the spot where he reportedly accepted the commission to lead Virginia’s Confederate Army against the United States.

Little also been said about plans for a statue of Sally L. Tompkins, a Confederate hospital administrator, that is to be added to the Virginia Women’s Monument unveiled last October in Capitol Square.

Delegate Bagby has stressed repeatedly that the presence of these monuments to Confederates is not being ignored, and that discussion continues among members of the General Assembly and within the VLBC over their place within the Capitol.

“Members have already announced commitments to continue work toward removing those statues and images from the Capitol grounds,” Delegate Bagby said. “I guarantee if they remain on the Capitol grounds, it won’t be because of a lack of effort” to remove them.