Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham (née Yvonne Michele Anderson) was born in Washington, DC, but moved with her family to her mother's native Tidewater, Virginia before the age of one. She grew up both in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, Virginia, where she graduated from the Norfolk Academy, established in 1728. Maternally, and by adoption, she is the descendant of an African-American man born and raised in the South who fought for the Union Army during the Civil War.
Sculpted by Norfolk-born artist William Couper, "Johnny Reb" was first erected in Downtown Norfolk on 16 May 1907. The subject of heated, colorful debates both in the mid-1920's and mid-1950's, the statue was eventually removed in 1964-1965, for fear that it would be damaged during the construction of the Virginia National Bank Building (later, the Bank of America Building, now the Icon Building, still undergoing renovation as of January 2018). When "Johnny Reb" was re-erected in 1971, Norfolk, Virginia was in the midst of a heated debate about school desegregation and busing.
Post the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Alexander - the city's first African-American Mayor - suggested that "Johnny Reb" be relocated to Norfolk's Elmwood Cemetery, adjacent to West Point Cemetery and nearby Cedar Grove Cemetery, where he would join a smaller Confederate monument, the Confederate soldier represented also referred to as "Johnny Reb", and a monument of Sgt. William Carney, the African-American Union soldier and first African-American recipient of the Medal of Honor portrayed by Denzel Washington in the film Glory (1989), erected in honor of African-American Union soldiers who also lost their lives during the Civil War. Ms. Anderson-Avraham supports this proposition as a solution which "authentically preserves the history of the Civil War with right direction of the heart".
Richmond, Virginia was the capital of the Confederate States of America from 8 May 1861 to 2 April 1865. When Richmond fell to the Union Army in April 1865, the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Danville, Virginia for a period of eight days, from 3 to 10 April 1865.
Norfolk, Virginia's Commercial Place was earlier known as "Market Square". Several blocks to the South, along the banks of the Elizabeth River, Africans disembarked by force in America as "slaves". Slave auction blocks, a slave jail, and a slave infirmary all existed within one block of Market Square, the very spot where "Johnny Reb" stood on 12 August 2017.