Crews in Charlottesville, Virginia, will begin removing two Confederate monuments from city property on Saturday, the city announced Friday.
The statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson will be taken down and put into storage. Their stone bases will be removed at a later date, the city said.
The city council passed a resolution on June 7, 2021, authorizing the city manager to cover or remove the statues. The city manager may not destroy or sell the statues under the current authorization.
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City officials have sought expressions of interest from museums, historical societies, and other organizations that seek to take possession of the statues and had received 10 responses as of Friday, which officials are reviewing, the city said.
The statues’ removal serves as the climax of a multiyear legal and cultural battle over the fate of the statues.
City officials first received a petition to remove the statues in 2016, and city council members passed a resolution expressing their intent to remove the statues on Feb. 6, 2017, after which a group of residents sued the city to stop the statues’ removal, beginning a yearslong court fight.
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The Virginia Supreme Court ruled in April that the city could remove the statues, overruling a state circuit court decision that had prevented the removal of the statues, which had served as centerpieces of 2017’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville at which white supremacist and other anti-removal protesters clashed with counterprotesters.
