Photo: Steve Helber/AP/Shutterstock
The Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond will be removed on Wednesday, Sept. 8, less than a week after Virginia’s Supreme Courtruled unanimouslythat the state can take down its own statue of the Confederate general.
Officialsannouncedon Facebook Monday that preparation for the removal including road closures and fences will begin on Tuesday night and last until the statue, installed in 1890, is gone.
The monument is “the largest Confederate statue remaining in the United States,” per the statement. The 12-ton statue sits atop a 40-foot granite pedestal, altogether six stories high.
The statue will be sent to “secure storage at a state-owned facility” until officials make a decision on its final disposition.
On Thursday, plaques from the base of the monument will be removed. Officials plan to replace a time capsule “that is believed to be located at the site,” per theVaMonument2021Facebook page.
The 40-foot granite pedestal that held the Confederate general will remain up until they find a disposition place that will be “determined following a community-driven effort to reimagine Monument Avenue, including the state-owned property surrounding the monument and the pedestal.”
Beginning at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, a public viewing area will be set up at Monument Avenue at Stuart Circle. The removal of the statue can also be streamed onFacebookor Virginia Gov. Ralph S. Northam’sTwitteraccount.
“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” the 61-year-old governor said in the VaMonument2021 press release. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a Commonwealth.”
Mayor Levar Stoney added, “We are taking an important step this week to embrace the righteous cause and put the ‘Lost Cause’ behind us. Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy. We are a diverse, open, and welcoming city, and our symbols need to reflect this reality.”
Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia.RYAN M. KELLY/AFP via Getty Images
Last Thursday, Virginia state justices came to a 7-0 decision that determined that the statue more than a century later “communicates principles that many believe to be inconsistent with the values the Commonwealth currently wishes to express,” NBC News reported.
Northam issued an order to remove the statue in June 2020, 10 days after the killing of unarmed Black manGeorge Floydin Minneapolis.
Some Virginians attempted to block that order in lawsuits citing 1887 and 1890 deeds, in which the state promised to maintain the statue forever.
In response to the ruling, Northam issued a statement saying that the removal of the statue would allow for “a more inclusive future — where the Commonwealth glorifies the Confederacy no longer.”
In a press release following the unanimous ruling, the governor’s office said that the state had already beenplanning for the statue’s removalfor months, but noted it would require several days of work.
In December 2020, the statue of Lee was taken down at the U.S. Capitol, where it had served as a representation of the state of Virginia.
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In a news release at the time, Northam called the removal of the Capitol statue of Lee an “important step” for Virginia and the United States.
“The Confederacy is a symbol of Virginia’s racist and divisive history, and it is past time we tell our story with images of perseverance, diversity, and inclusion,” the governor said.
Across the country, statues and other iconographymemorializing figures from the Confederacywere met with fierce backlash in 2020, amiddemonstrations against racial injusticefollowing the killings of Floyd,Breonna Taylor, and others.
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source: people.com
