WLM Painted On Arthur Ashe Monument

While graffiti had become a common sight along Monument Avenue the Arthur Ashe statue largely escaped the attention of vandals until this rainy morning. Sometime around 10:45 AM a white male approached the statue and tagged it with "WLM" and "WHITE LIVES MATTER".

Word of the vandalism spread quickly on social media and soon afterwards someone with a different viewpoint arrived and spray painted "BLM" over the "WLM" tag.

Not long afterwards the original WLM vandal was back on the scene adding more "White Lives Matter" messaging to the statue. This time the man was confronted by reporters and bystanders who questioned his motivations and why he was choosing to engage in this behavior at the monument to the late tennis great.

"You put it on our statues, I'll put it on yours," the man explained to a woman recording the incident.

Around 11:40 AM several nearby residents arrived and began scrubbing all of the graffiti off the monument base. With a small crowd gathering the vandal returned once more and also volunteered to help clean his own graffiti from the statue.

Confronted again by someone with a camera the man was asked why he painted his message on the statue and he offered "Don't all lives matter?" adding "Why is it okay to spray paint on this statue 'black lives matter,' but not 'white lives matter'? What's the difference? . . . They all matter. Everybody matters, right?"

The man who refused to identify himself drove a vehicle with South Carolina license plates and stated he had Richmond connections having attended nearby Benedictine High School.

The WLM/BLM graffiti on the statue proved to be short lived as the efforts of volunteers and later Richmond City power washers were able to clear the fresh paint from the granite pedestal.

Read More:

• WRIC 8 - Arthur Ashe memorial tagged with ‘WLM’ before painted over with ‘BLM’
• Richmond Times-Dispatch - Arthur Ashe statue vandalized with 'White Lives Matter' graffiti
• Washington Post - ‘White lives matter’ painted on Arthur Ashe monument in Richmond
• New York Times - Arthur Ashe Statue in Virginia Vandalized With ‘White Lives Matter’