The iconic statue of General Robert Lee, one of the largest Confederate monuments in the United States, was removed this Wednesday morning from the center of Richmond - the capital of the Confederacy during the war, between 1861 and 1865 -, Virginia. The revision of monuments in the United States as part of the anti-racist wave caused by the death of George Floyd accelerated the latent debate years ago about the figure of Lee. After a year of legal wrangling, the local government was finally able to remove the statue from its pedestal amid hundreds of protesters clapping and shouting chants of “Black Lives Matter” and “Whose streets? Our streets! ”.
The 6.4-meter-tall statue, erected in 1890 on a granite pedestal nearly twice the height, was the first of six monuments honoring white power in Richmond, and the last of this ensemble to be removed.
With its demolition it is sought to end the incarnation of the mythology of this city as the former capital of the Confederacy.
The revisionism of the symbols of the civil war took a second breath when hundreds of white supremacists flocked to Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 to protest against the decision of the authorities to remove the statues.
That day, the demonstration led to race riots that resulted in the death of a woman run over by a 20-year-old neo-Nazi who drove his car into the anti-fascist crowd.
More information
Robert Lee statue removed in Charlottesville four years after supremacist revolt
Statues demolished by anti-racist protesters in the United States, in pictures
The biggest push to remove racist symbols from the streets came with outrage at the death of George Floyd, sparking the largest wave of racial protests in half a century.
Richmond removed some, but the statue of General Lee survived, primarily because of a state law protecting veterans memorials.
Last week the Supreme Court of Virginia settled the matter, and the governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, announced that he would finally fulfill his promise more than a year ago: they would remove the statue.
"This took a long time to come, part of the healing process so that Virginia can move forward and be a welcoming state with inclusion and diversity," said Northam this morning, who witnessed the removal of the monument along with other state authorities.
The Democrat added that the statue represented "more than 400 years of history of which we should not be proud."
The statue was cut in two so that it could be transported to an undisclosed state facility until a decision is made on what to do with it.
Now only the pedestal remains.
Subscribe here to the
EL PAÍS América
newsletter
and receive all the information keys on the region's current affairs
Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits
Subscribe here
