Last year, the City of Richmond spent over $16,000 to enhance a 90-year-old Confederate marker, citing a resident’s desire to honor their ancestor.

The upgrades included adding a bench and fencing around the marker, which was placed in 1939 by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and now stands near a Department of Public Utilities substation on Wise Street.

City officials justified the expenditure as an act of goodwill in response to a citizen’s request. However, new information challenges this explanation and raises questions about the city’s approach to its remaining Confederate tributes.

Mike Sarahan, a former City Attorney’s Office employee who has been highlighting lingering Confederate tributes, provided research and documentation identifying both the person who made the request and the ancestor they sought to commemorate.

The ancestor’s Civil War military service suggests he is unlikely to be among the approximately 100 South Carolina Confederate soldiers commemorated by the marker, according to Sarahan. These soldiers reportedly died in a temporary hospital opposite the current location of the marker and substation, according to an inscription on the marker.

In a statement on Wednesday, Richmond city officials reiterated that the choices were made with good intentions and that the memorial is treated as a marker for the dead, rather than as a Confederate monument.

“The City of Richmond received a request from a citizen requesting access to the remains of their relative which were thought to be buried on City property, managed by and containing infrastructure for the Department of Public Utilities,” the statement read.

“Since this is regarded as a burial marker and not a Confederate monument, the City acted in good faith and in the spirit of the law outlined in Virginia Code 57-27.1 requiring ingress and egress to the cemetery or graves by family members and descendants of deceased persons buried there, the City granted access to the burial marker in question.”

“The City is performing additional research to further confirm the status of this matter.”

The statement is similar to one made in 2023 when Sarahan began to raise concerns about the additions to the marker.

“The marker is a tombstone for the mass burial,” Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders stated in an email responding to inquiries by Sarahan. “That is why it has been treated with sensitivity by the City.

“Furthermore, a resident, who has a grandfather, four times removed, represented by this marker asked for and received the bench to sit and reflect at the marker. You may disagree, but please accept this as the city’s official response.”

While the fencing around the marker has been removed, the city’s substantial investment in the project stands in stark contrast to Richmond’s recent efforts to remove such symbols from public spaces. 

Over the past few years, the city has dismantled numerous Confederate statues and monuments, making this allocation of resources noteworthy.

Shawn O. Utsey, a psychology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the presence of Confederate monuments can impact the lives of African-American residents, even as they face more immediate issues like police brutality and economic struggles.

“It’s hard to deal with symbolism when black folks have real, practical problems on a day to day basis,” Utsey said.

“But it doesn’t mean it’s not having a significant impact on the psychological well being of the black community.”

Utsey also noted that the attention and care for the marker is a telling sign of the city’s priorities, particularly amid debates and discussion about supporting other aspects of Richmond life and government.

“When you are having conversations about schools being under-resourced, underfunded, when you see the money being poured into symbols of white supremacy,” Utsey said, “as well as institutions such as the police (and) the courts, it sends a clear message.”