Virginia Senate Approves Bill Stripping Some Confederate Organizations of Tax-Exempt Status

The Virginia state Senate has approved legislation that would revoke tax breaks granted to some Confederate organizations, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).

Main reason

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“It’s about who we are giving special privileges to,” Democratic Delegate Alex Askew explained, “and what they stood for.” Askew is the patron of the bill.

Spreading misinformation

“We know that the United Daughters of the Confederacy has continued to push the narrative of the lost cause,” Askew continued, “and we don’t need to continue to support that in our tax code.”

Bad ideas

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Members of the UDC have fought to prevent the removal of monuments honoring Confederate soldiers. “I wouldn’t put them on … our hate group list,” an official with the Southern Poverty Law Center told the Guardian in 2018, “but they are still perpetuating some of the vilest ideas in American history, and the ones that we’ve worked so hard to get rid of.”

Lost cause

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According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the UDC has shared literature claiming many enslaved African Americans were “ready and willing” to serve their white owners. During the twentieth century, they supported and financed the installation of many Confederate monuments.

Vile language

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In 1913, a Confederate veteran gave a speech to commemorate the installation of a Confederate statue in North Carolina. “One hundred yards from where we stand … I horse-whipped a Negro wen..h until her skirts hung in shreds because upon the streets of this quiet village, she had publicly insulted and maligned a southern lady,” the veteran said.

Standing for what’s right

“Our code should reflect our values,” Askew said, “and what we want the Commonwealth to be now.”

Paying up

Under the bill and an amendment added by the Senate, the UDC would have to pay taxes on some property they own in the state.

Groups affected

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The main bill eliminates the state tax exemption previously granted to “the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and eliminates the tax-exempt designation for real and personal property owned by the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the General Organization of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Incorporated.”

Exemptions

The bill “doesn’t mention historic organizations like NAACP,” Askew clarified, “and other groups that are really moving things and have had connections within our community in pushing what we believe forward.”

Fighting back

Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution spoke out against the bill. One member argued that “we would all do well to learn and really not punish the soldiers and the families of those who [lose] ones in that struggle.”

No problems

According to Askew, the bill would not prevent the UDC from operating in the state.

Deadly conflict

The US Civil War was the deadliest war in American history, with over 600,000 Americans losing their lives. That’s more than both World Wars combined.

Real cause

The Lost Cause myth was started by ex-Confederates after the war as a reaction to their total defeat in the Civil War. “With time, they conceived a deep mythology, a rather lethal narrative of their loss,” Encyclopedia Britannica explains. “With time, the Lost Cause tradition took root in selective reinterpretations of the war’s causes, in Southern resistance to Reconstruction, in ever more virulent doctrines of white supremacy, and in a nostalgic popular culture enjoyed and promoted by Northern as well as Southern culture brokers.”

Actual cause

Despite repeated arguments from Confederate sympathizers, the widespread historical consensus is that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery. As the National Park Service notes, “South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and the other states that seceded from the United States did know the reason for their action, and they stated it clearly, time and time again. They named the preservation of slavery as foremost among their motivations.”