Lee surrenders — this time in B’klyn
A TREE THAT grows in Brooklyn no longer bears a plaque honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The 105-year-old marker went south Wednesday, removed from a maple tree planted by Lee in the 1840s — years before his decision to lead the secessionist fight in the Civil War.
“For us, it wasn’t a decision that needed more than a minute of thought,” said Bishop Lawrence Provenzano of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
“I think it was the right thing to do, because (the plaque) just being there was offensive to the African-American community.”
The tree, planted by Lee when he served at nearby Fort Hamilton between 1842 and 1847, rises outside a shuttered Episcopal church in Bay Ridge.
The diocese was immediately inundated with threatening phone calls and emails from alt-right protesters infuriated by its decision.
“Very extreme alt-right and white supremacy, neo-Nazi rhetoric that has been flooding the emails of our staff,” said the bishop. “Direct threats to me, the staff.”
The 1912 marker was taken down along with a second plaque installed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1935.
Provenzano acknowledged the recent, deadly clash in Charlottesville, Va., and the removal of Confederate statues in other cities influenced his decision.
The two plaques marked the spot where Lee planted the maple outside the house of worship.
Local resident Tony Eye, 60, voiced his opposition to the move relocating the historic plaques from the tree outside St. John’s Episcopal Church to a diocesan archive.
“What’s next?” he asked. “If someone doesn’t like the color of that guy’s door, you’re going to take it down? If it was red, and someone related that to communism, they have to take it down because it’s a red door?”The parish, closed in 2014, was once known as “The Church of the Generals” for a congregation that over the years included Lee, fellow Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson and former Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Matthew Ridgway. Mayor de Blasio tweeted his support Wednesday for renaming two Fort Hamilton streets honoring Lee and Jackson, and promised a 90-day review “of all symbols of hate on city property.” No. 1 on the mayoral hit list: The removal of Nazi collaborator Philippe Pétain’s name from the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan. Earlier this month, the Army rejected demands of to rename two streets honoring Lee and Jackson inside neighboring Fort Hamilton. Both generals served at the base. Meanwhile, Bronx Community College President Thomas Isekenegbe announced Wednesday evening that the school will remove busts of Lee and Jackson from the Hall of Fame for Great Americans on its campus. “For 60 years, Bronx Community College of the City University of New York has remained committed to reflecting its values of diversity and inclusion in all of its actions and statements,” Isekenegbe said. “Embracing difference includes creating space where all people feel respected, welcomed and valued.” “There are many great Americans, many of them New Yorkers worthy of a spot in this great hall. These two confederates are not among them,” tweeted Gov. Cuomo. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said Wednesday that he plans on introducing a bill to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol building. “This is just one step. We have much work to do,” Booker tweeted.