"RACIST + RAPIST": On Founder's Day at U-Va., Jefferson's statue is defaced
Grade Point
RACIST + RAPIST: On Founders Day at U-Va., Jeffersons statue is defaced
By Susan Svrluga April 13
susan.svrluga@washpost.com
A university worker cleaned a statue of Thomas Jefferson located on the Lawn at the University of Virginia. It was painted with the phrase Racist + Rapist early Friday. (Geremia Di Maro/Cavalier Daily)
The words RACIST + RAPIST were painted on a statue of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia on Friday, the day the school commemorates its founder each year. This year marks the 275th anniversary of his birth.
Jefferson has become a fraught symbol as the university delves more deeply into its own complicated history, and as broader cultural battles play out nationally and locally over monuments and race.
Jefferson author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. president and founder of the public university is believed to have had children with a woman who was enslaved on his plantation. In August, students and community members circled a statue of Jefferson to protect it, as white supremacists carrying torches surrounded them, the beginning of a weekend of violent clashes in Charlottesville. In September, students and other community members shrouded a statue in black, with signs labeling Jefferson a racist and rapist.
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Susan Svrluga is a reporter covering higher education for The Washington Post's Grade Point blog. Before that, she covered education and local news at The Post. Follow
@SusanSvrluga