"Virginia began naming days after its Confederate heroes in 1889, more than two decades after the Civil War ended, when the legislature established Robert E. Lee Day on his birthday, Jan. 19. Jackson, whose birthday was Jan. 21, was added to Lee's day in 1904.

In 1978, the state decided that [Martin Luther] King, who was born Jan. 15, would have New Year's Day named in his honor. Then in 1984, two years before Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a national holiday, Virginia legislators stiched the three men's names together on a single day on which they were to be remembered and revered as 'defenders of causes.'

Last January, in his State of the Commonwealth speech, Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) proposed separate Lee-Jackson and King holidays. The General Assembly ratified his plan during last year's session" (Carol Morello, The Washington Post, January 15, 2001).

This year, black members of Virginia's House of Delegates protested "the chamber's decision to begin each day's session by reciting a 30-word salute to the Virginia flag, a tribute they say is an unwelcome reminder of the massive resistance to desegregation in the South" while former lieutenant governor John H. Hager (R), the new assistant to the governor for emergency preparedness "canceled the keynote speech he was scheduled to deliver Friday at an event honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson" (Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post, January 17, 2002).

Closed Friday, January 18th, for Lee-Jackson Day: State government offices, local government offices [except Fluvanna County], DMV, Virginia Employment Commission, Courts and Schools in Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa, Madison and Orange.

Send your thoughts about honoring Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson to george@loper.org where the most representative comments will be placed on my web site with full attribution.