Authorities and residents in Portsmouth, Virginia, are confused by the intended message behind the vandalism of that city's Confederate Monument. On June 18, someone spray-painted the white faces of the four soldiers on the monument black. Locals describe it as "puzzling" and "baffling." The police have yet to determine the culprits.

This is only the latest twist to what has become a familiar -- and similarly confusing -- form of racist vandalism. In 1982, for example, a statue of John Henry, "the steel drivin' man," in Talcott, West Virginia, was splashed with white paint. A bust of Martin Luther King Jr. in Buffalo, New York, has reportedly been the victim of similar splashing. And in 2004 the giant Joe Louis fist in Detroit, Michigan, was doused with gallons of white paint, while a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in Austin, Texas, was spray-painted silver.

Back in Portsmouth a metal conservator has begun removing the black paint from the Conferderate's faces. But authorities fear that the paint may never be completely removed, as the statues are zinc and the paint has soaked into the 112-year-old metal. [06/30/2005]

February 10, 2012