The Robert E. Lee Memorial was a monument commemorating

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...

, formerly installed in Roanoke, Virginia's Lee Plaza. The stone memorial was approximately tall, and was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the fall of 1960, just as the first two black students were enrolled in the all-white school system. The monument's erection coincided with the run up to the centennial of the Civil War in 1961. In June 2020, the Roanoke City Council voted to start the legal process to remove the monument and rename Lee Plaza after the July 1, 2020 date when a new state law did away with the prohibition against removing monuments to the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

. On just before midnight July 22, 2020, the monument was found to be torn down and broken into two pieces. A 70-year-old man named William Foreman, who was caught vandalizing the monument the night before it was torn down, was arrested on July 24, 2020, and eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Lee Plaza was renamed Lacks Plaza after Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells are the source of the first immortalized human cell line, and who was born in Roanoke. A statue of Lacks was unveiled in the plaza on October 4, 2023. Evergreen Burial Park submitted a proposal to the Roanoke City Council, to relocate the monument to the burial park that was accepted by the council. The proposed location for the re-erecting the statue is at the east end of the park adjacent to the flagpole dedicated to the

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster On January 28, 1986, the broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39a.m. Eastern Time Zone, EST (1 ...

References

1960 establishments in Virginia 1960 sculptures Buildings and structures in Roanoke, Virginia Monuments and memorials in Virginia Monuments and memorials to Robert E. Lee Outdoor sculptures in Virginia Stone sculptures in Virginia Vandalized works of art in Virginia Monuments and memorials in Virginia removed during the George Floyd protests {{US-sculpture-stub

See also

References