[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] - The 12-ton, 21ft bronze General Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia, was removed at 9am
- The statue is the largest Confederate monument in Virginia and the largest Confederate statue in the country
- It was erected in 1890 in honor of Lee, a prominent slave owner and revered Confederate Army general
- Last year, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced it would be brought down in light of the BLM movement
- A time capsule that has been in the statue's base for 131 years will be replaced by a new one
- The new capsule contains 39 'artifacts' including a BLM sticker, a 'Virginia is for lovers' Pride sticker, an expired COVID vaccine and pictures from a Stop Asian Hate Protest
- Richmond Police closed the roads surrounding the statue and fenced it off ahead of the removal
- Pedestrians were allowed to watch it from a viewing area on Monument Avenue; they chanted, cheered and sang as it was taken down
- Senate Republicans in Virginia and some residents wanted to stop it from being torn down; they say the monuments are part of the state's history
- Another statue of Lee in Charlottesville was brought down in July - that was the site of the Unite the Right rally in 2017
- Since 2020, 160 Confederate statues, school names and monuments have been removed across the US
- The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are still some 2,000 'symbols' still standing across the US
|
