RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that became a rallying point for white supremacists and helped inspire his infamous 2017 rally in Charlottesville, will be hoisted from his pedestal later this week. Will be sent for storage, officials announced on Friday.
Lee’s statue and another Confederate tribute nearby are both to be removed Saturday, nearly four years after violence erupted at the “Unite the Right” rally. The chaos left 32-year-old protester Heather Heyer dead and sparked a national debate over racial equity, fueled by former President Donald Trump’s insistence that there was “blame on both sides”.
A coalition of activists issued a statement on Friday celebrating the announcement. Due to litigation and changes in state law relating to war memorials, the city has so far been unable to act.
As long as the statues “stand in the public spaces of our city, they indicate that our community has tolerated white supremacy and that these generals fought for the Lost Cause,” said the coalition called Take ‘Em Down Civil .
Preparations around the parks where the statues stand were to begin Friday and include the installation of protective fencing, the news release said. Designated public viewing areas will be set up for removal.
The city said only statues of Lee and Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson would be removed. The stone bases of the monuments will be temporarily abandoned and later removed.
In this August 23, 2017, file photo, city workers prepare to drape a tarp over the statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson at Court Square Park, formerly Justice Park, in Charlottesville, Virginia (AP Photo/Steve Helber, FILE)
The statues are located in places of relative prominence in Charlottesville, a small, picturesque town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and home to the University of Virginia. Commissioned by a UVA graduate and created in the 1920s, when Jim Crow laws were eroding the rights of black citizens, the statues are a block apart from each other.
Charlottesville City Council voted to remove the Lee statue in February 2017 amid mounting public pressure, including a petition started by Zhanna Bryant, a black high school student.
A lawsuit was quickly filed, plans for the city were put on hold, and white supremacists were seized of the issue.
First, they rallied torchlight at the statue in May 2017, then in July gathered a small group of Klanmen, far more than peaceful protesters.
The issue reached a climax in August, when white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizers of the “Unite the Right” rally gathered in the city to defend the Lee statue and took on the issue for propaganda It was the biggest meeting. extremists in at least a decade.
They clashed with anti-racism protestors on the streets near the statue as police largely stood and watched. The scenes of intense violence shook the country. A short time later, a white supremacist and admirer of Adolf Hitler deliberately plowed his car into a crowd of people, killing Heyer and leaving life-changing injuries to others.
Trump’s suggestion at a later news conference that there were “very good people on both sides” became a crush of criticism from Republicans, Democrats and business leaders.
Charlottesville continued to fight in court to have Lee’s statue removed and also voted to remove Jackson’s figure. But a circuit court judge also barred the city from covering the idols with tarpaulins.
The monument-preservation law was rewritten in 2020, after Democrats took control of the General Assembly in the 2019 elections. Since then, local governments across the state have removed the statues that have stood for a century or more.
However, Charlottesville awaited a settlement of the lawsuit, which came in April, when the state’s highest court sided with the city.
Neo-Nazis and white supremacists surround counter protesters at the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson after marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches in Charlottesville, Va., August 11, 2017. (She Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Since that decision, the city government has been working its way through the requirements of the new law, such as holding public hearings and offering the statue to a museum or historical society for possible relocation. The Charlottesville sculptures offer period ends Thursday.
Ten responses have been received so far, Friday’s news release said, and the city is open to “additional expressions of interest.” Under the new law, the city has the final right in the disposition of the idols.
Both will be kept in a secure location on city property until the city council makes a final decision, the news release said.
In the aftermath of the rally, residents of Charlottesville unleashed a torrent of pain, anger and despair at city and state officials, laying bare deep issues about race and economic inequality. Activists have since pushed the city to address the legacy of racism and slavery and the lack of affordable housing and police accountability, among other issues.
Kristin Szakos, who was a member of the city council at the time of the rally, said in an interview earlier this week that it was determined to ensure that the lessons of 2017 were learned.
“It really brings a lot of awareness to white supremacy that is not only from visitors to Idaho, but also from our own culture and the structures in our own institutions that we have to deal with. And that the Nazis are out of our city are more important than repelling,” she said.
Szakos, no longer in office, said the city had made some progress towards that work and that removing the statue would be another step in the right direction.
City officials have said they plan to redesign the park spaces where the sculptures are located “in a way that promotes healing and that tells a more complete history of Charlottesville.”