A couple of state Supreme Court rulings paved the way for its removal last week after an intense national debate over the purpose and location of the 12-ton statue along the nearly one-mile tree-lined street. the city that was the capital of the Confederacy. The statue is scheduled to join other Confederate symbols, including busts of Confederate figures in the Virginia State House, which have been removed from the community and across the country after the assassination of George. Floyd provoked a national calculation with police brutality and racism.
Lawrence West, founder of BLM RVA, told CNN that it is “very satisfying and rewarding” to see the statue removed. His group has occupied the space surrounding Lee’s monument – unofficially christened by protesters as the Marcus-David Peters Circle in honor of a black teacher who was killed by police while experiencing a “mental health crisis” – since June 2020 amid protests over Floyd’s death.
“Robert E. Lee standing here on Monument Avenue is very symbolic for the Confederate mentality, you know the levels of oppression that people feel every day,” West said. “With the descent of the monument, it’s also a part of the fall of these kinds of ideals. He closes the conversation: ‘It’s okay to be racist.’
Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam had announced plans to remove Lee’s statue in June 2020, but faced legal challenges.
A group of Richmond residents sued, arguing that an 1890 deed and a joint 1889 General Assembly resolution prohibited the governor from directing the removal of a state monument from state property. Plaintiffs also claimed property rights to enforce the facts, saying they demanded that Virginia perpetually keep Lee’s statue in place.
In his view, the Virginia Supreme Court disagreed, saying all of the plaintiffs’ claims were without merit and dissolving the orders imposed by the lower court.
Northam praised the rulings as a “tremendous victory” in a statement last week and said demolishing the statue would help move the state and Richmond “to a more inclusive and fair future”.
Patrick McSweeney, a Monument Avenue resident attorney in one of the lawsuits, told CNN Tuesday that he had informed the Virginia Supreme Court he would request a new hearing.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, denied Tuesday that the state high court “clearly stated that the preliminary measure pending appeal was dissolved” immediately. “
And while some Monument Avenue residents tried to block its removal, more than 50 residents living on or near the street supported the statue’s removal.
Democrat Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney invoked his emergency powers last summer to remove several Confederate monuments in honor of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, General JEB Stuart and others. And protesters had knocked down a monument to Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate states during the Civil War.
Combat local oppression
The statue will be placed in secure storage at a state facility until its new disposition is decided, officials said Monday in a press release. According to officials, the 40-foot granite pedestal on which Lee’s statue stands will remain in place during a community-led effort to “reimagine” Monument Avenue.
It is also planned to replace a time capsule at the monument with a new capsule made by Richmond sculptor Paul DiPasquale that will include 39 artifacts. A photo taken of a black dancer at the monument last summer, a vaccination card against the Covid-19 and a Kente cloth are some of the items to include.
“The last 18 months have seen a historic shift, from the pandemic to the protests for racial justice that led to the removal of these monuments to a lost cause,” Northam said in a statement on Tuesday. “We should replace the old time capsule with a new one that tells this story.”
The statue and its surroundings have recently been an intersection of protests, dance, activism and even a somber place of reflection where a hologram of Floyd illuminated the statue last summer.
The pedestal, according to West on CNN, should go to a museum to preserve it as an artifact of a historic moment.
“This is the zero point and that expression must be defended,” he said, adding that there are more things to do after the monument is removed, including curbing gun violence, a problem that Stoney declared a public health crisis in May.
“Not only do we have to fight the general symbols of oppression and the general ideals of oppression. We also have to fight things locally,” West said.
CNN’s Deanna Hackney and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
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