Memorials to Robert E. Lee in Richmond and Charlottesville are stuck in legal battles despite public protests and the governor's pledge.
Virginia has always been the state with the most Confederate statues, but in recent weeks, and especially in the city that was once the capital of the Confederacy, the statues have been coming down. Construction crews removed Stonewall Jackson and Matthew Fontaine Maury from Monument Avenue in Richmond last week, and more statues are expected to come down Monday.The six-story-tall statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, a state-owned memorial that Gov.
"When the state took the property and accepted the statue, it made promises to local landowners that it would keep the statue intact in perpetuity. ... It's like a claim that your neighbor promised you that, say you live in a homeowners association, that they would never use their property to build a gas station on it."Schragger said the Richmond case is particularly complicated because the court is weighing the"enforceability" of the agreement.
"I don't think the injunction is going to last very long. ... I've been dealing with Lee and all these other statues for three years. I don't think they're going to have a legal leg to stand on," Jones said of the plaintiffs."This is just their last-ditch attempts. They'll continue to try, but it's going to come down. It's going to come down."
And now, even with Virginia law having been changed to allow localities to remove or relocate Confederate monuments, Charlottesville's City Council and therefore the Lee statue remain stuck in a legal battle that originated from the original council vote.
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