Police in in Charlottesville, Virginia, have arrested an activist who admitted that he used a kitchen knife and a pry bar to remove a controversial bronze slave auction block marker from Court Square.
Richard H. Allan, 74, was arrested Tuesday in his studio at Albermarle County, on charges of grand larceny and possession of burglarious tools. He is in jail pending a bail review.
The plaque was reported missing last week.
Allan told the weekly C-Ville that he removed the plaque during the early morning hours of Feb. 6, but did not have “the intention to offend anyone in our great town or our historic county.”
Longtime Charlottesville reporter Hawes Spencer said that in a city where statues are erected honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the plaque embedded in the sidewalk has been the focus of discussion for several years.
In 2017, amid court battles over whether the city could remove the Lee and Jackson statues, the Unite the Right rally resulted in the death of a counterprotester and dozens of injuries.
Two days before the plaque disappeared, Spencer took a photo of the marker after someone used chalk to cross out the word “Slave” and substitute “Human.” On a nearby pole was written “1619” — the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in the Virginia colony of Jamestown.
“It struck some people in Charlottesville as being insufficient, not as respectful for the broken families and lives ruined by the trade in human beings,” Spencer said. “[Allan] said he did it because he grew frustrated that a better plaque or better monument had not yet been erected.”
Allan told C-Ville: “I deeply apologize if removing a metal plaque” offends any citizen in Albemarle County, where Charlottesville is located.
“It became very clear to me that, for many in Charlottesville, it is the height of insult to place the history of Charlottesville enslavement on the ground, where people with dirt on their shoes can stand upon it.”
On Monday, Charlottesville police was still investigating the incident and said they were aware of Allan’s interview and had not yet recovered the marker.
“There’s two fellows in town who are facing felony charges for defacing our Civil War Confederate monuments,” Spencer said. “So it would be surprising if someone confessed to taking this monument and didn’t get charged.”
“This is civil disobedience for sure and those who practice civil disobedience often accept the charges that they’re charged with,” Spencer said.
WTOP’s Abigail Constantino contributed to this report.
