Virginia set to remove towering statue of Lee

Tribute to Civil War general was erected in 1890.

RICHMOND, VA. — A towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is set to come down Wednesday, more than 130 years after it was built as a tribute to a Civil War hero who is now widely seen as a symbol of racial injustice.

“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a news release on Monday. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a commonwealth.”

The imposing, 21-foot-tall bronze likeness of Lee on a horse sits atop a granite pedestal nearly twice that high in the grassy center of a traffic circle on Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue.

Northam announced plans to take down the statue in June 2020, 10 days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality and racism. The plans were stalled for more than a year by two lawsuits filed by residents opposed to its removal, but rulings last week by the Supreme Court of Virginia cleared the way for the statue to be taken down.

In Monday’s news release, state officials said preparations for the statue’s removal will began at 6 p.m. today, when crews will install protective fencing.

Once the statue is hoisted off the pedestal, it’s expected to be cut into two pieces for transport, although the final plan is subject to change, said Dena Potter, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of General Services.

After the statue is taken down Wednesday, crews will remove plaques from the base of the monument and will replace a time capsule that is believed to be there.

In Richmond, a city that was the capital of the Confederacy for much of the Civil War, the Lee statue became the epicenter of last summer’s protest movement. The city has removed more than a dozen other pieces of Confederate statuary on city land since Floyd’s death.

As one of the largest and most recognizable Confederate statues in the country, the removal of the Lee statue is expected to draw large crowds.

Limited viewing opportunities will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, state officials said. The removal also will be livestreamed through the governor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The Lee statue was created by internationally renowned French sculptor Marius-jean-antonin Mercie and is considered a “masterpiece,” according to its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, where it has been listed since 2007.

When the statue arrived in 1890 from France, an estimated 10,000 Virginians used wagons to haul its pieces more than a mile to where it now stands. White residents celebrated the statue, but many Black residents have long seen it as a monument glorifying slavery.