The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee comes down
RICHMOND, Va. — A crowd erupted in cheers and song Wednesday as workers hoisted one of the nation’s largest Confederate monuments off a pedestal where the figure of Gen. Robert E. Lee towered over Virginia’s capital city for more than a century.
The statue was lowered to the ground just before 9 a.m., after a construction worker who strapped harnesses around Lee and his horse lifted his arms in the air and counted, “Three, two, one!” to jubilant shouts from hundreds of people. A work crew then began cutting it into pieces.
“Any remnant like this that glorifies the lost cause of the Civil War, it needs to come down,” said Gov. Ralph Northam, who called it “hopefully a new day, a new era in Virginia.” The Democrat said the statue represented “more than 400 years of history that we should not be proud of.”
Sharon Jennings, an African American woman born and raised in Richmond, said she had mixed feelings seeing it go.
“It’s a good day, and it’s a sad day at the same time,” said Jennings, 58. “It doesn’t matter what color you are, if you really like history, and you understand what this street has been your whole life and you’ve grown up this way, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, my God.’ But when you get older, you understand that it does need to come down.”
Some chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” and sang, “Hey, hey, hey, goodbye.” One man with a Black Lives Matter flag was escorted out by police after running into the fencedoff work area. No arrests were reported, and there was no sign of a counter protest.
Workers used a power saw to cut the statue in two along the general’s waist, so that it can be hauled under highway overpasses to an undisclosed stateowned
facility until a decision is made about its future.
The job was overseen by Team Henry Enterprises, led by Devon Henry, a Black executive who faced death threats after his company’s role in removing Richmond’s other Confederate statues was made public last year.
Northam ordered the statue’s removal last summer, citing nationwide pain over the death of George Floyd at the hands of white police officers in Minneapolis. Litigation tied up his plans until the Supreme Court of Virginia cleared the way last week.
The 21-foot bronze sculpture sat atop a granite pedestal nearly twice that tall, towering above Monument Avenue since 1890 in this former capital of the Confederacy.
State, capitol and city police officers closed streets for blocks around the state-owned
traffic circle and used heavy equipment and barriers to keep crowds at a distance. The Federal Aviation Administration granted the state’s request to ban drone flights, and the event was livestreamed through the governor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“This is a historic moment for the city of Richmond. The city, the community at large is saying that we’re not going to stand for these symbols of hate in our city anymore,” said Rachel Smucker, 28, a white woman who moved to Richmond three years ago. “I’ve always found it to be offensive, as a symbol of protecting slavery and the racism that people of color still face today.”
The pedestal is to remain for now, although workers are expected to remove decorative plaques and a time capsule on Thursday.
After Floyd’s death, the area
around the statute became a hub for protests and occasional clashes between police and demonstrators. The pedestal has been covered by constantly evolving, colorful graffiti, with many of the hand-painted messages denouncing police and demanding an end to systemic racism and inequality.
The decisions by the governor and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney to remove the Confederate tributes marked a major victory for civil rights activists, whose previous calls to remove the statues had been steadfastly rebuked by city and state officials alike. A statue of Black tennis hero and Richmond native Arthur Ashe erected in 1996 is expected to stay.
“I think it’s pretty apropos that the only remaining monument on this tree-lined street is Arthur Ashe, and I’m pretty confident he’ll withstand the test of time,” Stoney said.