Robert E. Lee statue removed from Richmond, Virginia

Once home to the capital of the Confederacy and the massive resistance movement that sought to preserve school segregation removed an eyesore of a monument to the Confederacy and the Lost Cause, the dream of a sustained white supremacy.

The statue of Robert E. Lee was the first of five monuments to Confederate military figures along Monument Avenue in the Fan District and the last to be removed after a summer of protests against racial injustice, inspired by the murder of George Floyd.

Governor Ralph Northam said he encouraged those who continue to defend the statue to go back and read the history of how it got there and what it represents. People such as Lee, he said, “chose to be traitors to the United States and fought against our Constitution to promote slavery.”

At 8.55 a.m. on September 8, 2021, the statue of Robert E. Lee was lifted from the pedestal from which he loomed as a symbol of white supremacy for 131 years on Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA. The Confederate statue, installed in 1890, was the largest remaining in the US. The 40-foot granite pedestal the Lee statue sits on will remain in place during a community-driven effort to ‘reimagine’ Monument Avenue.

Devon Henry, owner of the construction company that took down the massive statue of Robert E. Lee raised his fist as the statue was lifted from the pedestal from which he loomed as a symbol of white supremacy for 131 years on Monument Avenue, Henry faced death threats after his company’s role in removing Richmond’s other Confederate statues was made public last year.