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Richmond city council panel endorses funding for new statue

A private foundation is conducting a fundraising effort for the statue, and the city's resolution would chip in $5,000.

RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond City Council panel has advanced a resolution that requests funding for a statue on the city's famed Monument Avenue that would honor African American troops who fought for the Union during the Civil War.

The resolution also asks the city administration to develop a plan for erecting the statue that would memorialize 14 Medal of Honor recipients from a U.S. Colored Troops regiment of the Union Army, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. A private foundation is conducting a fundraising effort for the statue, and the city's resolution would chip in $5,000. 

The full council might take action on the measure next week, the newspaper reported. 

Honoring the soldiers was among the recommendations of a commission that Mayor Levar Stoney directed to study what should be done with Monument Avenue and its collection of prominent Confederate monuments. The commission also recommended removing one of the monuments, a tribute to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. 

“We are evolving as a city,” said Viola Baskerville, a former state delegate, Richmond councilwoman and current member of the foundation leading the fundraising. “This is an opportunity to be more inclusive about who some of those heroes were that people do not know about.”

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