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As Virginia’s next governor, Ralph Northam will take part in the 2019 dedication of the Virginia Women’s Monument on Capitol Square, which is to include a statue of a Confederate captain.

Sally Louisa Tompkins, a Richmond hospital administrator renowned for her facility’s low mortality rate, was one of 12 women from 400 years of Virginia history chosen in 2013 for bronze statues as part of the monument.

Northam, like members of the Virginia Women’s Monument Commission interviewed for this story, appears to see a distinction between Tompkins and other Confederate officers.

“The governor-elect recognizes that the women who were selected for this monument contributed to Virginia at different times in our history and in different ways,” said Ofirah Yheskel, Northam’s press secretary.

“We should continue the conversation about monuments that were erected expressly to glorify individuals who fought a war against their own country to protect the institution of slavery, but we should also be honest about the difference between that and the recognition of a woman who only accepted her commission when it was the only way to keep her hospital open.”