On Wednesday November 11, 1992, at 4pm, UVA President John Casteen III and sculptor Loyd Lillie dedicated a statue of a young Thomas Jefferson to The College of William & Mary. The statue was donated to commemorate the school’s 300th anniversary and mimics one erected on UVA’s campus, a decision made to establish a sense of brotherhood between the schools. It further served to, as Casteen mentioned in the dedication speech, make up for Jefferson’s outstanding $17,000 debt to the college, which Jefferson took on to cover debts partially accrued funding UVA’s founding. The debt began a domino effect which bankrupted William & Mary, forcing it to close in 1880 for 8 years until federal funding to build a Normal School reopened the college’s doors.

Controversy over the statue has bubbled up in the past seven years, as students either call for its removal, disillusioned with William and Mary’s ties to slavery, or call for the statue to be left as is. Consequently, the Jefferson statue has been defaced four notable times in its history, in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020. The first protest occurred on November 9, 2015, when anonymous students mimicked a protest at the University of Missouri by covering Jefferson with sticky notes reading, “rapist,” “racist,” “slave owner,” and “pedophile.” The second protest was a response to the first, on February 23, 2016, held by the Debate Society. This demonstration turned into a counter-protest where crowd members who supported Jefferson, after hearing a debate for and against the statue’s removal, covered Jefferson in sticky notes pleading his case, such as “No Proof He Raped Anyone,” “Inventor and Scholar,” “Founding Father,” and “Deserves To Be On This Campus.”

Almost a year later, on February 11, 2017, the famous “red paint demonstration” took place. Students spray painted Jefferson’s knuckles red and wrote “Slave owner” on the bricks at his feet. William and Mary’s spokesperson, Suzanne Seurattan, officially responded to the protest saying, “It is not acceptable to deface property to express an opinion.” However, her sentiment was not shared by Brendon Thomas ’18, the first person to comment publicly about the statue, who posted at 12:37pm on Instagram writing, “Overseen: Thomas Jefferson with the blood of all the people he owned on his hands.” While Thomas does not represent the whole student population, the juxtaposition of his reaction compared to the school’s speaks to rising campus tension between students and the establishment.