Statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee comes down in Va.
RICHMOND, Va. — A crowd erupted in cheers and song Wednesday as workers hoisted one of the nation’s largest Confederate monuments off a pedestal where the figure of Gen. Robert E. Lee towered over Virginia’s capital city for more than a century. The statue was lowered to the ground just before 9 a.m., after a construction worker who strapped harnesses around Lee and his horse lifted his arms in the air and counted, “Three, two, one!” to jubilant shouts from hundreds of people. A work crew then began cutting it into pieces.
“Any remnant like this that glorifies the lost cause of the Civil War, it needs to come down,” said Gov. Ralph Northam, who called it “hopefully a new day, a new era in Virginia.” The Democrat said the statue represented “more than 400 years of history that we should not be proud of.”
Sharon Jennings, an African American woman born and raised in Richmond, said she had mixed feelings seeing it go.
“It doesn’t matter what color you are, if you really like history, and you understand what this street has been your whole life and you’ve grown up this way, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Jennings said. But when you get older, you understand that it does need to come down.”
No arrests were reported, and there was no sign of a counterprotest. Workers used a power saw to cut the statue in two, so it can be hauled under highway overpasses to an undisclosed state-owned facility until a decision is made about its future. The job was overseen by Team Henry Enterprises, led by Devon Henry, a Black executive who faced death threats after his company’s role in removing other Confederate statues was made public last year.