Youngkin's pick for Historic Resources Board under fire for defending the Confederacy

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Reese Water's fill-in on the Open Mic show Thursday night on WUSA

VIRGINIA GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

Youngkin’s pick for Historic Resources Board under fire for defending the Confederacy

By Katie King
The Virginian-Pilot • Jul 21, 2022 at 7:21 am

Gov. Glenn Youngkin is facing calls to withdraw his recent appointee to the Historic Resources Board due to her recent comments defending the Confederacy and criticizing former President Abraham Lincoln’s role in the Civil War.

Youngkin announced last week he had appointed Ann McLean, a historian and the founder of a Christian school in Richmond, to serve on the Board of Historic Resources. Shortly after, she came under fire for previous remarks defending Confederate statues on a Richmond radio show. On Monday, she returned to the radio show and seemingly doubled down.

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McLean, who founded Hunter Classical Christian School in Richmond, could not be reached for comment. ... On Monday’s radio show, McLean said southern states had the right to secede and did not commit treason. She also criticized Lincoln for calling up troops against the Confederates. ... “Invasion, just like we see Russia invading Ukraine, invading a new territory was wrong,” she said. “And so many people want to just flatten the whole Civil War to slavery, and of course we know slavery is not good. But I think slavery would have been outlawed in the South within five or 10 years, but they wanted to do it on their time.”

During her previous appearance on the show in December, she objected to the removal of Confederate statues and said they were built to tell the “true story of the American South” and its fight for the “sovereignty of each state and constitutional law.”

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Katie King, [e-mail]

https://twitter.com/katiekingcst

https://twitter.com/virginianpilot

[The Magistrate]

1. This Line, Sir, Makes Pollyanna Look Like A Cold-Eyed Cynic

"But I think slavery would have been outlawed in the South within five or 10 years...."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Her LinkedIn profile

Ann McLean
Head of School at Hunter Classical Christian School
Richmond, Virginia, United States78 connections

Experience

Head of School
Hunter Classical Christian School
Aug 2010 - Present12 years

Education

Davidson College
Bachelors of Arts English Language and Literature/Letters
1981 - 1985

MA, University of Va., 1991; Ph.D, University of Virginia, 1998

MA, PHd Art and Architectural History

View Ann’s full profile

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Youngkin appoints Confederate statue defender to historic resources board

I suspect that the "online publication Virginia Star" is a RW website. The Tennessee Star appears to be RW, and I'm not going to click.

Youngkin appoints Confederate statue defender to historic resources board

By Gregory S. Schneider
July 15, 2022 at 5:58 p.m. EDT

RICHMOND — Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has appointed a historian to the state Board of Historic Resources who has defended the state’s Confederate monuments and condemned their destruction as a “dangerous” rewriting of history. ... Ann Hunter McLean of Richmond, the former head of a Christian school, told an online publication that she believes Virginia’s heritage is “under attack” as she begins serving on the board, which oversees state historic-site designations. ... Last year, as the last vestiges of Richmond’s Confederate monuments were being taken down in the wake of social justice protests, McLean lamented the loss.

[Robert E. Lee statue is removed in Richmond after months of protest and legal resistance]

“This whole tragedy is that these statues were built to tell the true story of the American South to people 500 years from now,” McLean said to a Richmond radio host on Dec. 23, 2021, after state archivists opened a time capsule found under the site where the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee once stood on Monument Avenue. “People want to destroy the evidence of that story,” she continued, saying the Civil War was fought for the “sovereignty of each state and constitutional law.”

{snip}

McLean did not respond Friday to an email and a phone message requesting comment. She was quoted in the online publication Virginia Star as saying in an interview that she was uncertain whether her role on the board would involve decisions regarding monuments. ... “But I am not into destroying people’s fine art. I think there’s something cosmically wrong with doing that under any circumstances,” she said, adding that she is particularly interested in overseeing the language on state historical markers.

Approving and revising those markers is one of the primary functions of the historic resources board, which consists of seven people appointed by the governor. The board meets jointly with the State Review Board four times a year to consider nominations to the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. It also holds easements at historic sites around the state.

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By Gregory S. Schneider
Greg Schneider covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was The Washington Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also covered aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry for The Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/SchneiderG