Johnny Reb Statue

“Johnny Reb” was a nickname Federal soldiers gave Confederate soldiers. Charlottesville’s Johnny Reb Statue was erected in 1909 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, whose stated purposes included funding monuments commemorating Confederate Soldiers.

The Charlottesville statue was one of many inexpensive, mass-produced statues installed throughout the South to celebrate and promote the “Lost Cause” narrative. Inscribed phrases served to glorify Confederate figures and the Confederate cause as a noble, worthy effort, phrases such as “To Commemorate Heroism,” “Love Makes Memory Eternal,” “Lest We Forget.”

“Johnny Reb” was placed in front of the Albemarle County Courthouse, marking the courthouse as a white supremacist institution, a fact which was not lost on anyone.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded in Nashville, TN, in 1894 and is still functioning today. There is an historic connection between the UDC and the KKK, a clear connection as late as 1936.

A 2019 photo of current UDC membership was striking to me personally when I felt as if familiar women from my childhood in Lynchburg were staring back at me.