Jefferson Davis Memorial (Richmond, Virginia)
The Jefferson Davis Memorial was a Confederate monument on Richmond, Virginia’s Monument Avenue. It was unveiled on June 3, 1907, Davis’s birthday and Confederate Memorial Day in Virginia.
The centerpiece was a bronze statue of Jefferson Davis by Richmond sculptor Edward Valentine, shown with an outstretched arm and a history book. Surrounding it was a colonnade of 13 columns, representing the Southern states that left the Union, and an east-side 67‑foot Doric column topped by Vindicatrix, a bronze figure representing Southern womanhood, also by Valentine. The monument included two square piers with eagles and plaques, plus 11 bronze seals for the seceding states and 2 for states that sent troops for the Confederacy.
The Davis statue stood on a granite block and carried a frieze with words from Davis’s farewell address to the U.S. Senate in January 1861. The left plaque honored the Army of the Confederate States; the right plaque honored the Navy of the Confederate States, with verses praising Confederate sacrifice.
Funding came from the Jefferson Davis Monument Association and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the unveiling occurred during a reunion of the United Confederate Veterans before a large crowd. The event included a parade, prayers, and speeches.
During the George Floyd protests in June 2020, the bronze Davis statue was toppled. The Vindicatrix statue atop the central column was removed on July 8, 2020, and the remainder of the monument was dismantled in February 2022. A time capsule was found during the work. Nothing remains of the monument at its original site.
The Davis statue now sits at The Valentine museum in Richmond, on loan from the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. It is displayed as part of the museum’s “This is Richmond, Virginia” exhibit, lying horizontally with visible damage and pink paint splatters from the destruction.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 06:25 (CET).