Virginia’s Lee statue has been removed from the US Capitol

WASHINGTON

A statue of Accomplice Gen. Robert E. Lee that has represented Virginia in the U.S. Capitol for 111 decades has been eradicated.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam explained in a statement that personnel taken out the statue from the Countrywide Statuary Corridor Collection early Monday early morning.

Northam had asked for the removing and a state commission decided that Lee was not a fitting image for the point out.

Lee’s statue experienced stood with George Washington’s statue given that 1909 as Virginia’s reps in the Capitol. Each individual point out gets two statues.

The point out fee has advisable changing Lee’s statue with a statue of Barbara Johns. She protested ailments at her all-Black substantial university in the town of Farmville in 1951. Her court circumstance grew to become section of the landmark Brown v. Board of Schooling selection by the U.S. Supreme Court docket. The ruling experienced struck down racial segregation in community schools.

Confederate monuments have reemerged as a national flash place considering the fact that the loss of life of George Floyd, a Black guy who died following a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into his neck for numerous minutes. Protesters decrying racism have focused Confederate monuments in a number of towns, and some have been taken down.

“The Confederacy is a image of Virginia’s racist and divisive record, and it is previous time we explain to our story with photographs of perseverance, range, and inclusion,” Northam mentioned in a assertion.

The Democratic governor added: “I glimpse ahead to viewing a trailblazing younger girl of shade symbolize Virginia in the U.S. Capitol, wherever website visitors will learn about Barbara Johns’ contributions to The united states and be empowered to produce optimistic transform in their communities just like she did.”

U.S. Property Speaker Nancy Pelosi also hailed the elimination, stating in a assertion there “is no room for celebrating the bigotry of the Confederacy in the Capitol or any other area of honor in our country.”

The existence of statues of generals and other figures of the Confederacy in Capitol places these as Statuary Hall — the initial Dwelling chamber — has been offensive to African American lawmakers for several many years. Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat, was acknowledged to give excursions pointing out the several statues.

But it’s up to the states to ascertain which of their historical figures to screen. Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator from Mississippi who was president of the Confederate States of The us, is represented by a single of two statues from that state.

Pelosi, a Democrat from California, pointed out in June that Davis and Accomplice Vice President Alexander Stephens, whose statue comes from Georgia, “were charged with treason in opposition to the United States.”