Va. removes Confederate monuments from Capitol
Chicago’s 2 Columbus statues also gone
RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia has removed from its iconic state Capitol the busts and a statue honoring Confederate generals and officials. That includes a bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee positioned in the same spot where he stood to assume command of the state’s armed forces in the Civil War nearly 160 years ago.
They are the latest Confederate symbols to be removed or retired in the weeks since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked a nationwide protest movement.
In Chicago, two statues of Christopher Columbus that stood in parks were also taken down early Friday at the direction of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a week after protesters trying to topple one of the monuments to the Italian explorer clashed with police.
Crews used a large crane to remove the statue in downtown Chicago’s Grant Park from its pedestal. A small crowd cheered and passing cars honked as the statue came down about 3 a.m. The second statue was removed about 5:30 a.m. from Arrigo Park in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood.
In a statement issued after the statues were taken down, the Democratic mayor’s office said they were being “temporarily removed ... until further notice.” It said the removals were “in response to demonstrations that became unsafe for both protesters and police, as well as efforts by individuals to independently pull the Grant Park statue down in an extremely dangerous manner.”
Virginia House Speaker Eileen Fillercorn, a Democrat, quietly ordered the Lee statue and busts of generals J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and others removed from the historic Old House Chamber.
Designed by Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia State Capitol is the first state capitol to open after the American Revolution and was used as the Confederacy’s Capitol during much of the Civil War.
Filler-corn’s move to remove the Confederate generals comes a few weeks after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of a different Lee monument – a 21-foot bronze equestrian sculpture on Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue.
Virginia Legislative Black Caucus
Chairman Del. Lamont Bagby hailed the monuments’ removal, saying “visitors from around the world have been greeted by these imposing symbols of treason and white supremacy for far too long.”
The Confederate monuments are not the only tributes to losing causes in and around the Capitol, a building built with slave labor where almost every portrait hanging on the walls is of a white man.
A large statue of ex-gov. Harry Byrd, the arch segregationist, sits on Capitol Square and two portraits hang prominently in the Capitol.
In the House chamber, behind where House speakers preside, is a plaque honoring Nathaniel Bacon. He was a wealthy colonist who led a failed rebellion in the 1670s whose aims including the unfettered killing of Native Americans and the seizing of their lands.