Virginia’s Robert E. Lee statue to be removed Wednesday – By Darryl Coote (UPI) / Sept 6 2021
Sept. 6 (UPI) — Officials in Virginia said Monday that a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the largest Confederate monument still standing in the United States, will be torn down on Wednesday, bringing an end to protracted litigation that began more than a year ago when Gov. Ralph Northam ordered its removal.
“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a Commonwealth.”
In June of last year, Northam ordered the 60-foot statue removed following nationwide protests against the Memorial Day police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, attracting lawsuits from a descendent of the family who donated it as well as from interested citizens.
William Gregory, the descendent of the donating family, argued that deeds from more than a century ago stated that the state agreed to view the monument and the ground it stands upon as “perpetually sacred.”
