HAMPTON, Va. — Gov. Ralph Northam is calling for the removal of an arch honoring the former president of the Confederacy at Fort Monroe, where the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia 400 years ago.
The Daily Press reports that Northam's office presented a letter to members of the Fort Monroe Authority Board of Trustees Thursday calling for the removal of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Arch.
The board voted in favor of removal, which is likely to be a lengthy process because Fort Monroe is designated a national historic landmark.
The old army base sits on a hatchet-shaped peninsula named Old Point Comfort. The first enslaved Africans arrived at Point Comfort in 1619, and slaves sought their freedom at Fort Monroe during the Civil War when it served as a Union outpost.
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