“That statue has been there for a long time. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. So we’re taking it down,” Virginia governor Ralph Northam said
Protesters near the statue of Robet E. Lee in Richmond. Source: Steve Helber/AP/Shutterstock/ArtNews
Confederate monuments are again facing scrutiny amid protests against police brutality and racism. In six cities, protesters spray-painted statues and tried to topple them, ArtNews reports.
This made Virginia governor Ralph Northam announce that the statue of Robert E. Lee, one of the most controversial symbols of the Confederacy, would be taken down. Protesters gathered around the statue’s base and demanded the removal.
“That statue has been there for a long time. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. So we’re taking it down,” Northam said during a conference in Richmond, adding that the monument would be removed “as soon as possible”.
The statue is the only Confederate monument under state jurisdiction. On June 3, the city government announced that Richmond’s mayor and council would propose on July 1 an ordinance to remove all four Confederate statues in the city, which was once the capital of the Confederacy. The bill would give local governments the power to remove any monument without state approval.
“Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy – it is filled with diversity and love for all – and we need to demonstrate that,” mayor Levar Stoney said.
Two cities already removed controversial monuments amid protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. On June 1, a 115-year-old Confederate statue was removed from a park in Birmingham, Alabama; the Philadephia authorities took down the statue of Frank Rizzo, the former mayor and police chief, known for his aggressive policing of Philadelphia’s black and gay communities in the 1960s and 1970s.
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