Denise Lavoie -
The Associated Press
Teams working to remove the pedestal where the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was located in Richmond, Virginia, for more than a century, believe they have found a time capsule that was buried in 1887.
Lee's massive bronze equestrian statue, erected in 1890, was toppled in September, more than a year after Governor Ralph Northam ordered its removal after mass demonstrations for racism and police brutality broke out in the aftermath of the assassination. George Floyd's police station in Minneapolis.
The day after the statue's removal, crews spent more than 12 hours searching for a time capsule on the 40-foot-high pedestal, but were unable to locate it.
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On Friday, Northam announced that teams found the top of a square box that is embedded in a 2,000-pound (about 900-kilogram) block of granite.
It was not located at its base but about 20 feet above the ground, in the main section of the pedestal.
Workers who searched for it in September believed it was hidden inside or under a cornerstone of the pedestal.
"It seems like it's (the time capsule)," said Clark Mercer, Northam's chief of staff.
"We hope it has not been damaged by water in the last 100 years."
By late Friday afternoon, workers had lowered the large piece of granite containing the box to the ground and planned to move it to the state Department of Historical Resources for examination sometime next week.
Mercer said the box was still encased in granite and must be removed and X-rayed before officials can be sure it is a time capsule.
An image of the box found on the pedestal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia.Steve Helber / AP
An 1887 newspaper article states that
the capsule contains Civil War memorabilia and an "image of Lincoln in his coffin,"
although historians doubt that it is a real photograph, if so, it would be a rare and highly valuable image.
Virginia Library records suggest that 37 Richmond residents, organizations, and businesses contributed about 60 objects to the capsule, many of which are believed to be Confederate-related.
The Lee statue, which became a symbol of racial injustice, was one of five Confederate tributes located along Richmond's Monument Avenue.
All four statues owned by the city were removed in 2020, but removal of Lee's effigy was suspended for two lawsuits until
a Virginia Supreme Court ruling in September allowed it to be removed.
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In September, the governor said the pedestal would remain in place so that its future would be determined by the community participating in an initiative to reform Monument Avenue.
However, earlier this month it announced that the massive pedestal would be removed.
After Floyd's murder in 2020, Lee's statue became a focal point of the racial justice movement in Richmond.
Since then, the pedestal has been covered in graffiti, some containing insults and many denouncing police brutality.
Some activists wanted it to be kept there as a work of protest art.