Virginia to remove Richmond’s Lee statue
RICHMOND, VA. >> A towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, is expected to be taken down on Wednesday as a symbol of racial injustice, more than 130 years after it was erected in tribute to the South’s Civil War leader.
While many other Confederate symbols across the South have been removed without public announcements beforehand to avoid unruly crowds, Gov. Ralph Northam’s office is expecting a multitude and plans to livestream the event on social media.
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 work to proceed.
Patrick McSweeney, an attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said Tuesday he had notified the high court that he will ask for a rehearing, but such requests are rarely granted. From 2016 through 2020, the court granted rehearings in just two of the 86 requests it received, said L. Steven Emmert, an appellate attorney who publishes a website focusing on appellate rulings in Virginia.
“The chances are extremely remote,” Emmert said.
McSweeney also filed a motion seeking clarification from the court about its order last week, which dissolved an injunction preventing the statue’s removal. He wanted to known when it takes effect.
Attorney General Mark Herring argued the matter needed no further clarification, saying the court order “stated plainly that the prior injunction pending appeal was dissolved ‘immediately.’”
It was not immediately clear if or when the court would respond.
The imposing, 21-foot (6.4-meter) 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
“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” Northam said in news release on Monday. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a commonwealth.”
In Monday’s news release, state officials said that preparations for the statue’s removal will began at 6 p.m. Tuesday 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 on Thursday 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.