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On Monday, Virginia’s governor, Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat and the state’s first female governor, signed into law a bill that eliminates tax exemptions for organizations connected to the Confederacy.

HB167, passed by Democrats in the Virginia house and senate, specifically removes the Virginia division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Stonewall Jackson Memorial, the Virginia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, along with other groups, from the state’s list of organizations that are exempt from state property taxes.

Founded in 1894, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is a non-profit with chapters in states including California, Kentucky, South Carolina and others. The organization is largely responsible for the proliferation of Confederate statues and monuments across the country after the US civil war. According to tax filings published by ProPublica, the group raised more than $2.1m in revenue, had more than $1.1m in expenses and possessed $15.8m in assets in 2025.

Delegate Alex Askew, who sponsored versions of the bill for three consecutive years, celebrated the bill’s passage into law.

“Governor Spanberger’s signing of this bill is a proud moment and an important step forward for Virginia,” he said in a statement.

Richmond and Danville, both in Virginia, were capitals of the 11 treasonous, slaveholding states that seceded from the Union and attempted to form their own country built on enslavement. But in the last year, Virginia Democrats have worked to reshape the state’s reputation.

Their efforts have not been without pushback from Confederate-affiliated groups. “Passage of this bill will set a precedent to open the door for other valuable historical museums to lose tax-exempt status and opens wide the door for legal action,” the UDC’s president general, Julie N Hardaway said in a statement after the Virginia house passed the bill in February.

In recent years, memorials and other overtures to the Confederacy have been linchpins for protests against racial injustice – from South Carolina, where a Confederate flag flew at the statehouse until 2015, to Mississippi, whose state flag included a Confederate symbol until 2020, and to Richmond, which removed likenesses of Confederate generals also in 2020.

At the national level, Donald Trump has called for the reinstatement of some confederate monuments, including a bronze statue depicting Albert Pike that was toppled in Washington DC. In 2020, Trump said that he would “not even consider” renaming military bases that were named for Confederate leaders. Following Trump’s return to office last year, his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, reverted renamed army bases, ensuring they would return to their Confederate name.

Still, Virginia lawmakers are pushing ahead with their efforts. Last week, Spanberger signed into law a different bill that discontinues speciality license plates that feature Robert E Lee and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. She also sent a bill that would establish a taskforce at the Virginia Military Institute to, among other things, recommend ways for the college to distance itself from sanitized narratives about the Confederacy back to the assembly with recommendations.