Parksley discovers it does not own Confederate Statue

For almost 120 years the citizens of Parksley believed that the town owned the statue that is a memorial to the Eastern Shore’s veterans of the Confederate States of America.  In view of attempts throughout Virginia to remove Confederate Statues, along with other historic figures, the Parksley Town Council voted to sell the statue and the property on which it sits to the local chapter of the Sons of the Confederacy at their June meeting.  The Town Council voted unanimously to sell the property. 

A public hearing was scheduled for August 10 to discuss the sale.  But the hearing was called off when a title search discovered that the property and statue do not belong to the Town of Parksley. This announcement appeared on the Parksley Facebook page Tuesday.

“After extensive research by the Town attorney, it has been determined that the Town of Parksley does not, and has never owned the Civil War Monument. Due to this clarification from our legal counsel, the public hearing to discuss the sale of the property has been canceled.”

A local activist who is not a Parksley resident attempted to raise $10,000 on a GoFundMe page with which to purchase the statue, remove it and build a monument to the Eastern Shore’s African Americans in its place.

Town officials said that prior to the money raising campaign they had not had any requests from any town citizen to remove the statue. 

According to newspaper articles at the time, Parksley’s monument was dedicated in 1899 after several years of fundraising efforts by local citizens to honor the local Confederate veterans who signed up to fight for Virginia in the War Between the States, who were beginning to pass away at the turn of the century. 

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