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History was made in Richmond Wednesday when one of the country’s largest Confederate monuments, a 21-foot-tall bronze statue of Robert E. Lee on a horse, was taken down on the city’s famous Monument Avenue more than 130 years after it was erected in the former capital of the Confederacy.
While many saw the statue as an offensive glorification of the South’s slave-holding past, public officials had long resisted its removal, along with residents of Virginia who argued moving the monument would be akin to erasing history.
However, following the death of George Floyd last year, Governor Ralph Northam announced intentions to remove Lee from the state-owned property. Last week, he finally won the right to take it down after more than a year in litigation.
Northam issued the following statement after the Robert E. Lee Monument was officially removed:
“After 133 years, the statue of Robert E. Lee has finally come down—the last Confederate statue on Monument Avenue, and the largest in the South. The public monuments reflect the story we choose to tell about who we are as a people. It is time to display history as history, and use the public memorials to honor the full and inclusive truth of who we are today and in the future.”
The bulk of the work started around 8 a.m. and continued into the afternoon. After a crane lifts the 12-ton statue to the ground, it will be cut into three pieces for transport. The piece of bronze went up in 1890, so cutting it into pieces safely could take a while.
“History is being made, and this is not something that happens every day…this has been a very long fight for people in Richmond,” said Mykel Parham, a VCU student in the crowd.
Just before the statue was lifted from its pedestal, Northam, his wife, Richmond’s Mayor, and others watched from a secure viewing area on site.
“It allows us to close a chapter of the lost cause and begin a new. We’ve already begun writing that new chapter, and I’m grateful for all of the voices, all of the activism,” said Mayor Levar Stoney, Richmond.
Members of the Virginia General Assembly, who approved legislation for localities to remove Confederate monuments and the funds to make Lee’s removal possible, were also at the site Wednesday.
