Amid protests, a renewed push to remove Confederate statues

RICHMOND, Va. – The statue of Robert E. Lee has towered over Richmond for more than 100 years. In recent days, it’s conveyed a different message: The words “Black lives matter” cover its stone pedestal.

At least a hundred people gathered on a muggy Thursday afternoon near the monument to the Confederate commander after Gov. Ralph Northam announced it was to come down “as soon as possible.”

Protesters on Monument Avenue have circled the Lee statue and four others – also soon to be removed – as demonstrations erupted around the USA over racial inequality, police brutality and the deaths of black Americans, including George Floyd. He was killed after a white police officer held his knee to Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes as other officers stood by.

James Kelley, 29, has been attending the protests in Richmond. “I think also just being that we were the capital of the Confederacy, if anyone’s going to lead by example, it needs to be us,” said Kelley, wearing a yellow bicycle vest with the words “Justice for George Floyd.”

Demonstrators spray- painted the Lee statue and those of J. E. B. Stuart, Jefferson Davis, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Matthew Fontaine Maury. They wanted to see them come down after years of the monuments being protected by state law, despite being “racist symbols of oppression and inequality,” as Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney put it.

“I’ve looked at ( the monument), and I’ve been like, ‘ Why do I live here. Why do I look at this every day? Why is that there?’ ” said Jessica Phelps, 26, a Cali

fornia transplant who lives on Monument Avenue half a block from the Lee statue.

Around the USA, protesters have defaced monuments, and city officials have announced plans to take down Confederate memorials.

Though the decision in Richmond signals a positive step for those who want the monuments removed, experts warn that the push to take them down and address what sparked them to be erected has a long way to go.

Among the locations where mayors, protesters and even groups dedicated to Confederate history have taken down statues or announced plans:

❚ In Montgomery, Alabama, on Monday, a statue of Lee was toppled in front of its namesake high school. Cheers went up among a small crowd gathered to watch the fallen general as cars circled the area and honked.

❚ In Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered workers to take down a 50- foot- tall Confederate obelisk Monday night after a group of protesters failed to knock it down. The night before, the group dismantled the brass cast of Charles Linn, a captain in the Confederate Navy, from its base.

❚ Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Thursday that a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died at a Union prison camp in the city will be removed from a park.

❚ A statue outside the Tennessee State Capitol of Edward Carmack, a controversial former lawmaker and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views, was torn down Saturday.

❚ The United Daughters of the Confederacy removed a statue of a soldier gazing south in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday.

❚ The Arkansas division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy announced that a Confederate soldier monument in Bentonville will be removed from the downtown square and relocated to a private park.

“We’ve seen an increasing number of these statues being taken down,” said Sara Bronin, a University of Connecticut law professor who focuses on land use and historic preservation. “You are seeing an increasing number

“You are seeing an increasing number of instances where local leaders are assessing what these statutes were intended to convey and determining that that’s not something they want to see in their cities anymore.” Sara Bronin,

University of Connecticut

of instances where local leaders are assessing what these statutes were intended to convey and determining that that’s not something they want to see in their cities anymore.”

The removals come after yearslong battles in some cases to see the markers taken down.

For those who want to see the memorials gone, the statues are seen as symbols of racism that prop up and honor not only the slave- holding men they depict but also a system of racial inequality. Defenders of the memorials say they symbolize American values and Confederate history.

Debates around the statues have become rallying points for some white nationalist organizations. In 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, a demonstration prompted by the city’s plan to remove Confederate statues turned deadly when a counterprotester was killed.

After nine black members of a Bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina, were killed by a white supremacist who had been photographed with a Confederate battle flag, a renewed interest in the memorials spread.

According to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center in February 2019, more than 100 Confederate symbols around the country had been removed since the Charleston attack.

In South Carolina, legislation was passed to remove Confederate flags from the Statehouse. New Orleans removed its last Confederate- era monument by May 2017.

Across the USA, Confederate memorials are coming down in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police and the protests that followed. But experts say the movement still has a long way to go. STEVE HELBER/ AP