Virginia's Lee statue has been removed from the US Capitol
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON (AP) — A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that has represented Virginia in the U.S. Capitol for 111 years has been removed.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement that workers removed the statue from the National Statuary Hall Collection early Monday morning.
Northam had requested the removal and a state commission decided that Lee was not a fitting symbol for the state.
Lee's statue had stood with George Washington's statue since 1909 as Virginia's representatives in the Capitol. Every state gets two statues.
The state commission has recommended replacing Lee's statue with a statue of Barbara Johns. She protested conditions at her all-Black high school in the town of Farmville in 1951. Her court case became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling had struck down racial segregation in public schools.
Confederate monuments have reemerged as a national flash point since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes. Protesters decrying racism have targeted Confederate monuments in multiple cities, and some have been taken down.
"The Confederacy is a symbol of Virginia's racist and divisive history, and it is past time we tell our story with images of perseverance, diversity, and inclusion," Northam said in a statement.
The Democratic governor added: "I look forward to seeing a trailblazing young woman of color represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol, where visitors will learn about Barbara Johns' contributions to America and be empowered to create positive change in their communities just like she did."
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also hailed the removal, saying in a statement there "is no room for celebrating the bigotry of the Confederacy in the Capitol or any other place of honor in our country."
The presence of statues of generals and other figures of the Confederacy in Capitol locations such as Statuary Hall — the original House chamber — has been offensive to African American lawmakers for many years. Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat, was known to give tours pointing out the numerous statues.
But it's up to the states to determine which of their historical figures to display. Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator from Mississippi who was president of the Confederate States of America, is represented by one of two statues from that state.
Pelosi, a Democrat from California, noted in June that Davis and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, whose statue comes from Georgia, "were charged with treason against the United States."
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The only places that should show statues of Robert E Lee are those that also have statues of Heinz Guderian.
We still have people in denial that Donald trump said there were "fine people on both sides" of the violent confrontation in Charlottesville in 2018.
Were there fine people on both sides, or was that a Trump suck up to his base?
Jason Eric Kessler is an American neo-Nazi, white supremacist and anti-semitic conspiracy theorist. Kessler organized the Unite the Right rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 11–12, 2017 and the Unite the Right 2 rally held on August 12, 2018.
On May 13, 2017 , white supremacist Richard Spencer led a nighttime rally in Charlottesville to protest the city's plans to remove the statue of Lee. The event involved over 100 protesters, from various alt-right groups from around the country, chanting "Jews will not replace us!" [54] and "Russia is our friend!" while holding lit torches near the statue, a spectacle which many Charlottesville residents found intimidating, and which the mayor denounced as a "harken[ing] back to the days of the KKK." [55] [56] The next night, hundreds of anti-racist Charlottesville residents held a candlelight counterprotest in response. [57] Throughout early to mid-2017, tensions mounted as neo-Confederate and alt-right groups' sporadic gatherings in Charlottesville's downtown parks and pedestrian mall were confronted by anti-racist activists, resulting in occasional scuffles and some arrests. [58] [59] [60] On July 8, 2017, the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan , a group from Pelham, North Carolina, held a rally at the Stonewall Jackson statue in Charlottesville. [61] In opposition to the rally, the Charlottesville Clergy Collective created a safe space two blocks from the Klan rally at First United Methodist Church, which was used by over 600 people. [61] About 50 Klan members were drowned out by 1,000 counterprotesters (including 23 civil disobedience activists arrested for attempting to block the Klan group's entry into the park), who gathered at a loud but nonviolent rally dubbed by anti-racist organizers as the "#BlocKKKParty." [62] [63] After the Klan group's departure, however, the Charlottesville Police Department declared the remaining counterprotesters to be an unlawful assembly, and ordered their dispersal—an order which, given the din of the crowd and the police helicopter hovering overhead, went unheard by many in the crowd. Although the Charlottesville chief of police had denied permission for the measure, the Virginia State Police acted upon an unapproved order and fired three tear gas canisters into a retreating group of counterprotesters. Police and city government officials later defended the action, which anti-racist counter-demonstrators and legal observer organizations characterized as police brutality. The resulting mistrust between law enforcement and local activists clouded the remainder of the summer, setting the stage for the August 12 Unite the Right rally. [64] [65]
I post this long passage from wikipedia to make this point. IT WAS WELL KNOWN, PARTICULARLY IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, that this rally was organized and run by white racists. Trump had to know that too, or he is more of an idiot than we believe, the permit to march belonged to a racist, neo Nazi group, it was all over the local news well before the night and day of the incidents. So just what kind of "fine people" showed up to march alongside the white nationalists and anti-semites ?
Trump apologists continue to say he was misquoted about Charlottesville. Its not that. He was pandering to his white grievance crowd when he made those comments. It is as plain as day.
Johns? wtf
How about Admiral Richard E Byrd?
How about Arthur Ashe?
Who cares if he died from AIDS, he was a black pioneer.