The moon illuminates the statue of General Robert E. Lee of the Confederates on Monument Avenue on Friday, June. Richmond, Virginia, May 5, 2020. On Thursday, September 2, 2021, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a giant statue towering over Monument Avenue in the state capital could be defeated for over a century and became a symbol. Of racial injustice. (AP Photo / Steve Helber, file)
Richmond, Virginia (AP) — The towering statue of General Robert E. Lee of the Confederates in Richmond, Virginia, is set to collapse on Wednesday, more than 130 years after it was built as a homage to the heroes of today’s civil war. State officials said Monday that they are widely seen as a symbol of racial injustice.
“Virginia’s largest Confederate rebellion monument will come down this week,” Governor Ralph Northam said in a news release Monday. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a federation.”
An impressive 21-foot (6.4-meter) bronze statue of Lee on a horse sits on a granite pedestal in the center of the lawn at the ring road at Richmond’s famous Monument Avenue.
Governor Ralph Northam destroyed the statue in June 2020, ten days after George Floyd died under the knees of a police officer in Minneapolis, causing a national protest against police atrocities and racism. Announced plans to do. The plan stagnated for more than a year in two proceedings by residents against the removal, but a decision by the Virginia Supreme Court last week paved the way for the statue to be demolished.
In a news release on Monday, state officials said preparations for the removal of the statue began Tuesday at 6 pm and the crew would install protective fencing.
After the statue was demolished on Wednesday, the crew on Thursday removes the plaque from the base of the monument and replaces the time capsule that appears to be there.
In Richmond, the capital of the Confederates for most of the Civil War, the statue of Lee was the epicenter of last summer’s protests. After Floyd’s death, the city removed more than 12 other Confederate statues on the city’s land.
As one of the largest and most famous Confederate statues in the country, the abolition of the Lee Act is expected to attract a large number of people.
State officials said in a news release on Monday that limited viewing opportunities would be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Deletions will be livestreamed through the governor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Both have @ governorVA handles.
The statue of Lee is considered a “masterpiece” because it was created by the internationally renowned French sculptor Marius-Jean-Antonin Merci and nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, which has been listed since 2007.
When the statue arrived from France in 1890, an estimated 10,000 Virginians used wagons to carry the statue to its current location for more than a mile. White inhabitants celebrated this statue, but many black inhabitants have long regarded it as a monument to praise slavery.
The Northam administration said it would seek public opinion on the future of the statue. In an effort to rethink the design of Monument Avenue, the 40-foot granite pedestal has been left behind for now. Some advocates of racial justice consider the graffiti-covered pedestal a symbol of the protests that erupted after Floyd’s murder and do not want to remove it.
Lawrence West, 38, a member of BLM RVA, an activist group occupying the transformed space of the Lee monument, said he believed the decision to remove the statue was facilitated by the work of protesters.
“That means it’s never gone down. They (Democrats in charge of the state government) had all the opportunities around the world.”
West said he hopes the statue’s location will turn into a community space “to foster all sorts of connections between different people.”
Virginia plans to remove Richmond Lee statue on Wednesday | WGN Radio 720
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