In 2020, under Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Fred Motley was appointed as a member of the Commission for Historical Statues in the United States Capitol. That's the group that oversaw the project to place the Johns statute in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Motely is an award-winning artist, scholar and historian. He's also the founder of the Danville Storytelling Festival, an event that took a pause this year as a strategic plan to boost funding and reach a larger audience. The program honors a tradition that extends the unwritten stories to the next generation through spoken word, music and dance.
Maybe he can help get rid of all those flags from the side that lost.