Petition launched to replace Confederate monument with Missy Elliot statue

A petition to replace a Confederate statue in Virginia with a statue of musician Missy Elliott has received over 16,000 signatures.

The Change.org petition proposes to replace the Confederate Monument in Portsmouth, Va. with a statue of Elliott, who is a Portsmouth native. 

The petition needs 25,000 signatures to be delivered to the city’s mayor and vice mayor, as well city council members. 

{mosads}”Together we can put white supremacy down, flip it and reverse it. Let us come together in getting City Council to erect this statue in honor of Missy Elliott and all those in the great City of Portsmouth who work it each and every day,” the petition’s organizer wrote on the website. 

The petition comes after the debate of Confederate monuments was reignited when violence engulfed Charlottesville, Va., after white supremacist groups protested the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. 

Various Confederate monuments across the country have been defaced or taken down in the wake of the violence. 

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is set to introduce legislation to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol. 

There have been calls in the House for the removal of the statues as well. 

President Trump has defended the “beautiful” monuments, claiming they are apart of U.S. history. 

“This week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” the president said during a press conference on Tuesday.