BREAKING: Workers have started taking down one of the largest Confederate monuments in the country, a statue of General Robert E. Lee in Virginia.
A giant statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, will be removed this week.RICHMOND, Va. -- After years of resistance and a long court battle, one of America’s largest monuments to the Confederacy was being pulled from its prominent perch in Virginia’s capital city Wednesday.
Northam noted the enormous size of the Lee monument, which sits in a grassy circle 200 feet in diameter, when announcing his initial decision to remove the statue from state land. After Floyd’s death, the area around the statute became a hub for weeks of protests and occasional clashes between police and demonstrators. The pedestal has been covered by constantly evolving, colorful graffiti, with many of the hand-painted messages denouncing police and demanding an end to systemic racism and inequality.
But in Virginia, local governments were hamstrung by a state law that protected memorials to war veterans. That law was amended in 2020 by the new Democratic majority at the statehouse and signed by Northam. With the changes that took effect on July 1, 2020, localities could decide the monuments’ fate.
The changes have remade Monument Avenue, a prestigious residential street lined with mansions and tony apartments, part of which has been designated a National Historic Landmark district. Richmond officials are advancing plans to remove the pedestals and other remnants of the statuary and at least temporarily pave over or re-landscape the sites.
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