This photo, taken by Matthew Brady between 1860 and 1865, depicts the “White House of the Confederacy” in Richmond, Va., which served as Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ home during the Civil War. A National Historic Landmark, the visitors may now visit the building that became a museum in 1896. (Matthew Brady/National Archives)
In a move prompted by a persistent Virginia Beach teenager, the Virginia Senate this week advanced a bill to remove the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) from the list of nonprofit and charitable organizations exempt from real estate, deed recordation and personal property taxes in Virginia state code.
Fantastic. As Lost Cause devotees and American traitor venerators , the UDC should never have been on that list to begin with.
The Washington Post’s Greg Schneider reported that Virginia Beach high schooler Simone Nied, 17, started advocating for the UDC’s tax exemptions to be stripped two years ago. Her requests culminated in House of Delegates and Senate bills to do just that. The loss of the tax exemptions, as Schneider noted, could mean a yearly tax payment to the state of at least $50,000, if the measures are approved by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.