The statue along Richmond Monument Avenue will be lowered Wednesday.
More than a year after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of a giant statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in the state capital, the monument will be lowered this week, state officials announced Monday.
The statue, erected in Richmond in 1890, will be removed from Monument Avenue this Wednesday, nearly a week after the Virginia Supreme Court paved the way for the state-owned monument to come down after several legal battles.
“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurgency will fall this week,” Northam said he said in a statement. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a Commonwealth.”
Northam ordered the removal of the statue in June 2020, amid national protests against symbols of racism and oppression that erupted after the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody.
Last week, the Virginia Supreme Court denied or dissolved precautionary measures sought in two lawsuits challenging the removal of the statue: one filed by a descendant of the former owners of the land where the monument stands, the other by several landowners and a property manager in the area’s historic district, allowing the state to move forward with its plans.
The removal of the 12-ton six-ton statue is “extremely complex,” the state Department of General Services said, and will require “coordination with various entities to ensure the safety of all involved.”
The removal process will begin on Tuesday evening, when teams will install fencing on the streets near the monument. All cars and pedestrians will be cleaned from the area at that time.
The state will host a public view of the statue’s removal starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday. On Thursday, crews will remove the plaques from the base of the monument. The 40-foot granite pedestal will remain for now, and its future is yet to be determined, the state said.
The statue will be kept “in safe storage at a state facility until it is decided on its disposal,” the state said.
This is the sixth and last Confederate statue to be removed from Monument Avenue.
“This week we are taking an important step to embrace the just cause and leave behind the ‘lost cause,'” Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said in a statement. “Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy. We are a diverse, open and welcoming city, and our symbols must reflect this reality. “
Last year, the busts of Lee and eight other Confederate leaders were removed from the Old House Chamber of the Virginia State Capitol Building in Richmond. The Fairfax County School Committee has also changed the name of Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield to John R. Lewis High School, in honor of the late Georgia Congressman and civil rights leader.
A great-grandfather-nephew of Lee has said earlier that removing Confederate symbols in public spaces is a “don’t think.”
“I see them as idolaters,” the Rev. Robert Lee IV told ABC News last year. “They have been created in idols of white supremacy and racism.”
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, more than 160 Confederate symbols were renamed or removed from public spaces in 2020.