A towering statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, is set to get taken down Wednesday, more than 130 years after it was raised in tribute to a Civil War hero now widely seen as a symbol of racial injustice, state officials said.
“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in news release on Monday. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a commonwealth.”
Gov. Ralph Northam announced plans to take down the statue in June 2020, 10 days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality and racism. The plans were stalled for more than a year by two lawsuits filed by residents opposed to its removal, but rulings last week by the Supreme Court of Virginia cleared the way for the statue to be taken down.
In Richmond, a city that was the capital of the Confederacy for much of the Civil War, the Lee statue became the epicenter of last summer’s protest movement. The city has removed more than a dozen other pieces of Confederate statuary on city land since Floyd’s death. Limited viewing opportunities will be available on a first‐come, first‐serve basis, state officials said in Monday’s news release. The removal will also be livestreamed through the governor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, both of which have the handle of @governorVA.
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