Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is trying to replace the state’s Robert E. Lee statue that stands in the U.S. Capitol building.
“These statues aimed to rewrite Lee’s reputation from that of a cruel slave owner and Confederate General to portraying him as a kind man and reluctant war hero who selflessly served his home state of Virginia,” a letter from Virginia Reps. Jennifer Wexton and Donald McEachin said in a letter sent to the governor’s office.
The governor responded to the letter by filing a draft bill that would set up a process for the Lee statue to be removed and replaced, according NBC News on Thursday.
Each state is allowed to place two statues in the Capitol. Lee has been one of the two statues from Virginia since 1909. George Washington is the state’s other statue.
Virginia has been a battleground for the debate over whether to tear down, move, or keep Confederate statues. Charlottesville was the site of the 2017 Unite the Right rally that left three people dead.
Northam, 60, faced his accusations of racism after the emergence of a medical school yearbook that depicted him and another person in blackface and a Ku Klux Klan robe.
