CONTENTIOUS CONFEDERATE STATUE BITES DUST

RICHMOND:

A towering statue of a Confederate general that became a focal point of protests for racial justice was removed on Wednesday in Richmond, the Virginia city that served as the capital of the proslavery South during the American Civil War.

The bronze statue of General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the bloody 1861-65 conflict, was lifted off its 12m granite pedestal as hundreds of onlookers cheered.

“Hey, hey, goodbye,” the crowd chanted as the 6.4m-tall statue was slowly lowered to the ground on straps to be carted away in pieces.

The Lee statue became a rallying point for protests following the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a black man murdered by a white police officer in Minnesota.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said the statue would go into storage, and he would “work with the community to determine its future”.

Tensions over the fate of another statue of Lee, in Charlottesville, led to violence in August 2017 when a white nationalist drove his car into demonstrators, killing a woman.