Northam to remove Lee pedestal and transfer the land to Richmond
RICHMOND — Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sunday that his administration will remove an enormous pedestal that until earlier this year held a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The announcement marks a reversal from September, when the statue was removed but the Democratic governor said the 40-foot pedestal, currently covered in graffiti, would stay.
His administration also announced plans to transfer ownership of the grassy island in the middle of a traffic circle where the statue was located to the city of Richmond. The move comes about a month before Northam leaves office and Republican Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, who has expressed less enthusiasm about the statue’s removal, is sworn in.
“It was important to us that we do it now and before we leave office,” said Alena Yarmosky, Northam’s spokeswoman.
The deeding of the land, given to the commonwealth in the 19th century, was a request from the city so the parcel could come under local control, Yarmosky said. State ownership has created logistical headaches with maintenance and security, she said.
Preliminary work on the pedestal removal was expected to begin today, with the project expected to be “substantially complete” by Dec. 31, according to a news release.
The Lee statue, a bronze equestrian piece installed in 1890, was perched in the middle of the traffic circle, part of a collection of other
Confederate statuary along Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue. The statue, which had drawn criticism as a symbol of racial injustice, was hauled away in September to cheers from onlookers.
Northam ordered its removal in the summer of 2020 amid the nationwide protest movement that erupted after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. But litigation tied up his plans until this year. “In 2020, we can no longer honor a system that was based on the buying and selling of enslaved people,” he said when announcing his decision to remove the statue.
The day it was hauled away, he said, marked “a new day, a new era in Virginia.”
In September, when The Washington Post pressed a Youngkin campaign spokesman for a position on the
removal, the spokesperson said Youngkin agreed. Youngkin has said the statue belongs in a museum or on a battlefield, as an opportunity to teach about history, and he has criticized the “graffiti and violence” that went along with many protests over Confederate monuments.
The Lee statue was one of five enormous Confederate tributes along Richmond’s Monument Avenue and the only one that belonged to the state. The four cityowned statues were also removed following Floyd’s killing after they became focal points in protests.
In September, Northam said the pedestal would remain in place so its future could be determined by a community-driven effort to reimagine Monument Avenue, an initiative being led by an arts museum and currently in a very early
stage.
“This land is in the middle of Richmond, and Richmonders will determine the future of this space,” Northam said in a statement Sunday. “The Commonwealth will remove the pedestal and we anticipate a safe removal and a successful conclusion to this project.”
The pedestal has been covered in graffiti, some of it profane and much of it denouncing the police. It has drawn some acclaim as a work of protest art, and some community members have advocated that it should remain. After Floyd’s death, the traffic circle became a gathering spot for activists, who informally renamed it in honor of Marcus-David Peters, a young Black man who was killed by a police officer during a mental health crisis after he threatened the officer.