--- title: Petition to Replace Confederate Statue With Missy Elliott description: Fans of Missy Elliott have started a petition to replace a Confederate monument in her hometown with a statue of the rapper. canonical: https://time.com/4910939/missy-elliott-confederate-statue/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-22T17:40:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:41.616Z og:title: Thousands Petition to Replace Statue With Missy Elliot og:description: "Missy is everything the Confederacy was not" og:url: https://time.com/4910939/missy-elliott-confederate-statue/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d406db9a7556a1f/6988daa322fb85149ae227f3/missy-elliott-petition-confederate-statue-replacement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: FYF 2017 - Day 1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Thousands Petition to Replace Statue With Missy Elliot twitter:description: "Missy is everything the Confederacy was not" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d406db9a7556a1f/6988daa322fb85149ae227f3/missy-elliott-petition-confederate-statue-replacement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Thousands Sign Petition to Replace a Confederate Statue With Missy Elliott > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 22, 2017 5:40 PM UTC  LOS ANGELES, CA - JULY 21: Missy Elliott performs on stage during Day 1 of FYF Fest 2017 on July 21, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paul R. Giunta/FilmMagic) LOS ANGELES, CA - JULY 21: Missy Elliott performs on stage during Day 1 of FYF Fest 2017 on July 21, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Paul R. Giunta/FilmMagic) Paul R. Giunta—FilmMagic  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 22, 2017 5:40 PM UTC Fans of [Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott](http://time.com/4484308/missy-elliott-marc-jacobs-video/) are petitioning to [replace a Confederate monument](http://time.com/4904679/confederate-monument-removal/) in her hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia with a statue of the iconic rapper; as of Tuesday, the [petition](https://www.change.org/p/portsmouth-city-council-replace-the-confederate-monument-with-statue-of-missy-elliott) had collected close to 28,000 of its goal of 35,000 signatures. The petition was started on Change.org by Nathan Coflin, who reasoned that there was no one better to “encapsulate the culture and spirit of the city enshrined in a new monument than Grammy Award winning rapper, dancer, and record producer Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott.” Coflin then goes onto point out how Elliott’s start in Virginia led to her success as a musical artist before relying on one of Elliott’s most famous lines to make his point. “Hailing from humble beginnings as the only child of a power company dispatcher and a welder at Portsmouth’s lauded naval shipyard, she rose to become a platinum recording artist with over 30-million albums sold. All this without even once owning a slave…together we can put white supremacy down, flip it and reverse it. Ycamerpus Etihw!” He then closed with the statement, “Missy is all of us. Missy is everything the Confederacy was not.” While the petition still needs about 7,000 more signatures to reach its goal, it’s already gotten a co-sign from Elliott herself. > [](https://twitter.com/MissyElliott/status/898754323168886785) Coflin’s petition follows [a series of protests and counter-protests ](http://time.com/4898105/white-nationalist-rally-charlottesville/) in response to the removal of Confederate monuments across the country; at a protest in Charlottesville, VA., [Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others were injured when a man believed to be a white supremacist allegedly drove his car into a crowd of counter demonstrators.](http://time.com/4904099/charlottesville-heather-heyer-mother-speech/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4910939/missy-elliott-confederate-statue/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4910939/missy-elliott-confederate-statue/"},"headline":"Thousands Sign Petition to Replace a Confederate Statue With Missy Elliott","datePublished":"2017-08-22T17:40:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:41.616Z","description":"\"Missy is everything the Confederacy was not\"","url":"https://time.com/4910939/missy-elliott-confederate-statue/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music","viral","Missy Elliott"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d406db9a7556a1f/6988daa322fb85149ae227f3/missy-elliott-petition-confederate-statue-replacement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d406db9a7556a1f/6988daa322fb85149ae227f3/missy-elliott-petition-confederate-statue-replacement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FYF 2017 - Day 1","caption":"FYF 2017 - Day 1","creditText":"Paul R. 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