A huge statue of former Confederate General Robert Lee was removed from its pedestal on Wednesday in Richmond, capital of the Confederate States during the Civil War. Quite a symbol.–
Under the gaze of hundreds of people gathered on Monument Avenue in Richmond, a crane on Wednesday removed the gigantic equestrian statue of former Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It had been erected in the capital of the State of Virginia, in the United States, in 1890. The monument has been moved to a location that is currently kept secret, pending a decision regarding its future.
«This day has been long in coming», Launched the governor of the State of Virginia Ralph Northam. For years, the fate of the statue had been at the heart of a controversy over the legacy of America’s slave past. Main military leader of the Confederates during the Civil War (1861-1865), Richard E. Lee had fought alongside the southern states against the ban on slavery. Over time, the equestrian statue therefore became a symbol of racist oppression and the city of Richmond, capital of the Confederate States during the Civil War, was called upon to debunk it.
Judicial battle
In the summer of 2020, the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a new wave of anger and demonstrators converged around the monument bearing the image of the Confederate General, whose twelve-meter-high pedestal had been covered with anti-racist slogans. On the same day, Ralph Northam announced his decision to remove the statue, which is state property. The start of a long legal battle started by supporters of “the status quo, Which the Supreme Court of Virginia put an end to last week, paving the way for the unbolting of the statue of Robert E. Lee.
Last year, on the same boulevard in Richmond, a statue of former President of the Confederate States Jefferson Davis was knocked down by protesters. Several other monuments had also been removed by decision of the town hall, to the point that today only one statue of public property remains in the former Confederate stronghold. The neighboring city of Charlottesville, marked in 2017 by deadly clashes between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators, also cleaned up and removed dozens of monuments to the glory of the Confederate army.
«Richmond is no longer the capital of Confederation», Rejoiced the African-American mayor of the city, Levar Stoney. On Twitter he posted a video in which he is seen cheering for the removal of General Lee’s statue.
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