NORFOLK, Va. -- Simone Nied was sitting in study hall last month when she learned a bill she inspired had passed the General Assembly.
"I got a text message from my dad because he was following it," said Nied, a junior at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach. "I was so excited to see all the support it got. I didn't really know I could do something that could reach so many people."
If signed into law, the bill would end a real estate-related tax exemption for the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Nied's father, an attorney, mentioned the tax break over dinner one night two years ago after running across it in the state code. It immediately piqued her interest because she didn't understand why the state would support an organization that protects monuments glorifying the Confederacy. She researched the group and came across an article in an online magazine from the Institute for Southern Studies , a media and education center with roots in the civil rights movement, that described it as "a sort of public relations agency" for the Ku Klux Klan.
"They are a very problematic organization," Nied said.
The UDC is a national nonprofit dedicated to honoring the memory of those who served in the Confederacy, according to its website. It lists several priorities, including marking locations "made historic by Confederate valor" and preserving materials for a "truthful history of the War Between the States."
Dawn Diehl, president of the Virginia Division, said the local group also donates and volunteers with various charities, including food banks and women's shelters, and it offers 17 scholarships to colleges and military academies.
Diehl added the organization is restoring its Goodlet Memorial Library in Richmond, which was fire bombed four years ago.
"(The library is) a rich treasure of rare books, documents, letters, personal records and other historically important papers," she wrote in an email. "As you can see from the many, many things we do, it would be very harmful and discriminatory to take away our tax-exempt status."
Nied said she respects the organization's right to free speech but didn't believe the state should actively support its mission. She reached out to Portsmouth Democrat Don Scott in 2022 and shared her concerns.
Scott, now the House Speaker, previously said he was "shocked" to learn about the tax break, which exempts the organization from paying real estate recordation taxes when it buys, sells or leases property.
Scott carried a bill last year to repeal the exemption, but it died in a House committee.
Del. Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, and Sen. Angelia Williams Graves, D-Norfolk, each introduced the bill this year in their respective chambers.
"I put the bill in because I think the codes need to reflect who we are in 2024," Askew said. "We know that the United Daughters of the Confederacy promoted the lie of the Lost Cause. A lot of the history taught in Virginia for decades was this perpetuated revisionist history of the Civil War."
The bill passed the statehouse along largely partisan lines, but did receive support from a few Republicans, including Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton.
Repealing the exemption would have an "unknown positive impact" on state and local revenues, according to its fiscal impact statement.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin hasn't publicly weighed in on the bill. He has until April 8 to sign or veto the measure. Youngkin has previously run into controversies involving the Civil War. Ann McLean, who he appointed to the Historic Resources Board, faced scrutiny two years ago for defending Confederate statues and criticizing President Abraham Lincoln for calling up troops against the Confederacy. A Youngkin spokesperson stated at the time that the governor did not agree with McLean's statements. McLean later resigned.
Nied is hopeful the bill will be signed into law. She and a handful of other students recently spoke with some of the governor's staff, she said. "We explained the issue and why we felt it should be changed," she said. "I think it was a very respectful meeting."