After months of debate, planning and input from the community at large, the first piece of the towering Vance Monument was removed from Pack Square May 17.
Demolition of the 123-year-old monument to Zebulon Baird Vance in downtown Asheville is expected to take two weeks, says city spokesperson Polly McDaniel. Costs to take down the structure block by block will reach roughly $114,000, while an additional $25,500 has been allocated for site restoration following the monument’s removal. Sidewalks around the area will remain open, but the surrounding streets will be closed to traffic.
The final decision on the structure came on March 23, when Asheville City Council members voted 6-1 to remove the 75-foot obelisk. “I’ve come to realize that the Vance Monument no longer reflects, and probably never reflected, the values of our community,” Mayor Esther Manheimer said during the meeting, in reference to Vance’s record of racism toward Black people. “I’m looking forward to the day we can have a centerpiece in our city that reflects Asheville today.”
McDaniel says there are no plans to make portions of the Vance Monument available to the public. The Asheville-based demolition contractor, Chonzie, is required to provide the city with a written disposal plan.
History lesson
Controversy surrounding the monument is not new, but the city’s 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis reignited debate over the structure based on its namesake’s racist views.
Vance was a Buncombe County native, slave owner, North Carolina governor and U.S. senator who fervently supported the Confederacy. In an 1860 speech addressing the U.S. House of Representatives, Vance denounced Northern abolitionists and adamantly opposed emancipation.
“Common sense says keep the slave where he is now — in servitude. … Treat him humanely, teach him Christianity, care for him in sickness and old age, and make his bondage light as may be; but above all, keep him a slave and in strict subordination; for that is his normal condition; the one in which alone he can promote the interest of himself or of his fellows,” Vance said.
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Vance was arrested by federal troops. Held in prison for just two months, he was released in July 1865 and placed on parole. He was later pardoned in 1867 for his role in the Confederate army, and although initially prohibited from serving in public office due to his past disloyalty to the United States, he continued to be active in politics and argued against civil rights for African Americans.
Vance died on April 14, 1894. Just four years later the cornerstone for a granite obelisk honoring him was laid at Pack Square in downtown Asheville.
Take it or leave it
During demonstrations in June 2020, the monument was repeatedly vandalized, leading city officials to deem the structure “a public safety threat.” Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners then authorized the appointment of a volunteer task force to determine if the obelisk should be removed or repurposed.
In August, the Vance Monument Task Force began meeting weekly to discuss the monument’s fate, explains co-chair Oralene Simmons. The team held engagement sessions with community members most impacted by the marker’s presence and read through over 1,000 emails, texts and voicemail messages as they considered different options.
The task force ultimately voted 11-1 on Nov. 19 in favor of removal, with the county commissioners voting unanimously to accept that recommendation and Council voting 6-1 in support.
Council member Sandra Kilgore, one of the body’s three Black members, was the sole vote against the removal of the monument. She had repeatedly pleaded with her colleagues to consider repurposing instead.
“Asheville’s obelisk itself does not represent the Confederacy. Many of the Confederate statues removed thus far were made in the image of Confederate soldiers, not stand-alone obelisks,” Kilgore argued in a commentary published Jan. 23 in Xpress. “Lifting the monument up and using the power of the obelisk could provide a new narrative that unites us all to create the desired results of unification, equity and inclusion,” she wrote.
What’s next?
As the monument continues to come down, Council is considering possibilities for the future of the site. In February, the Vance Monument Task Force offered ideas for Pack Square in its final recommendations to Council and the Board of Commissioners, including recognition of the Cherokee presence on the site before 1792 and commemoration of the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality.
In April, the city and county entered an agreement to split the $70,000 cost of hiring a consultant to facilitate that revisioning. The process is expected to last through fall and will include a community engagement component, which could begin as early as June, to answer questions about possible replacements and designers for the monument.
Results of that process are expected by the end of 2021. The cost of actually conducting any renovations remains to be determined.
The Democrat Party loses another statue.
It’s the GQP crying about keeping it, sweetie.
Yuk yuk
Mountain Xpress: Zebulon Vance (D) argues against civil rights
Vance rued the implications of emancipation. “There are indications that the radical abolitionists … intend to force perfect negro equality upon us,” he wrote. “Should this be done, and there is nothing to prevent it, it will revive an already half formed determination in me to leave the U.S. forever.”
https://mountainx.com/news/asheville-archives-zebulon-vance-argues-against-civil-rights-1874/
“The biggest fundraiser of the year for state Democrats will happen Saturday in Asheville, the Vance-Aycock Dinner”
https://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/1899222/
It is an unfortunate development that the present members of Council would undertake such measures to “show” how they would use the history or racism for pure political purposes by destroying this monument. There is nothing inherently constructive in the actions these “outsiders” have done to convince a majority of community members that this action was taken to correct the past or prevent racism in the future. This act was done for appeasing the few radical-left members of the “progressive” party that their leaders have performed their duties in securing “justice.” There is nothing about party politics these days that one might equate with “justice” or with correcting the sins of the past. Now, as the pendulum swings the other way to show just how radical and unjust these actions truly are, the “left” will pay for their reactionary politics as the evidence mounts that the alarming rise in crime and the cost of lives during the pandemic so attributable to relentless riots at the heart of the nation’s cities will bring about a corrective course against the Democrat Party elites in Washington. Harry Truman and John Kennedy would condemn these members of Council for the offensive politics they have played with this community. Shame on this present gang of politicians for ignoring the real issues and for convincing themselves that their actions are for “justice.” The one present member of Council who understands the hypocrisy of this actions is a native woman of color who is the only one to have exhibited wisdom and proper thinking for the future of Asheville. The “outsiders” are corrupt.
The one present member of Council who understands the hypocrisy of this actions is a native woman of color who is the only one to have exhibited wisdom and proper thinking for the future of Asheville.
“Wisdom” and “proper thinking”, eh? She voted against the removal because she feared a violent backlash from the Good ‘Ol Boys.
“I truly believe what we’re looking at here will hurt Black people.”
https://mountainx.com/news/council-votes-to-demolish-vance-monument/
That’s not what she meant… and you know it. That, and Ms. Kilgore has more wisdom and common sense in her sleep than you have in the totality of your lily white entitled you know what. Troll that.
No, I don’t know that. I’m quoting the XPress reporting. If it’s wrong, tell them.
“In a series of emotional pleas to her colleagues, she recounted personal stories of racism and urged members to think about potential retaliatory violence white supremacy groups may inflict on Black residents.”
https://mountainx.com/news/council-votes-to-demolish-vance-monument/
We all have our own way of remembering the past.
I agreed with Kilgore that the site should have been repurposed or rededicated. It’s a cool obelisk; no need to destroy it just because it was named after somebody with outmoded views who fought on the wrong side of the war.
But whatever, mission accomplished.
That said, I hope that whatever comes next will be beautiful, sizable, and striking. Handing these sites over to a committee often results in a wordy plaque and not much else. Incidentally, reviewing the Vance task force’s recommendation reminds one why very few deeds of note are accomplished by committee. It’s a mess.
Since the I.M Pei building on Pack Square was designed to be a boat in the middle of the mountains, perhaps a “lighthouse” should be built in the place of the monument.
Or, since this is A She-Ville, how about some sirens to send the boats crashing into the rocks?
https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/field/image/Seductive-Sirens-of-Greek-Mythology.jpg