The Robert E. Lee Monument in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, was the first installation on

Monument Avenue Monument Avenue is a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic in Richmond, Virginia, originally named for its emblematic complex of structures honoring those who fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. ...

in 1890, and would ultimately be the last monument removed from the site. Before its removal on September 8, 2021, the monument honored

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

General Robert E. Lee, depicted on a horse atop a large marble base that stood over 60 feet tall. Constructed in France and shipped to Virginia, it remained the largest installation on Monument Avenue for over a century; it was first listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2007 and the

Virginia Landmarks Register The Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) is a list of historic properties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The state's official list of important historic sites, it was created in 1966. The Register serves the same purpose as the National Registe ...

in 2006. an
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murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

in 2020, the controversial monument was covered in graffiti, and many activists called for its removal.

Ralph Northam Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

, the

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022. Oath of office On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...

, ordered the statue removed on June 4, 2020, but was blocked by a state court pending the outcome of a lawsuit. The state court ultimately ruled in Northam's favor in October 2020, but the decision was again put on hold pending appeal. The

Supreme Court of Virginia The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative ...

heard oral arguments in June 2021, ruling on September 2 that the restrictive covenants from 1887 and 1890 were no longer enforceable, and the monument could be removed by the state; the bronze sculpture was removed from its

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...

six days later. The vacant plinth was dismantled in February 2022, and now no trace of the monument remains on its original site.

Description and location

The bronze statue, sculpted by Antonin Mercié, depicted Confederate general Robert E. Lee atop a horse. A friend of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who likely helped him secure the commission, Mercié was chosen due to his international stature. The horse was not a representation of Robert E. Lee's horse Traveller, whose modest scale Mercié believed would not suit the overall composition. Traveller was replaced by a stronger looking thoroughbred. Lee stood high atop his horse and the entire statue was tall including a stone base designed by Paul Pujol. an
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time capsule A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates ba ...

was embedded in the base pedestal when the monument was first erected. The state-controlled land around the statue's former site serves as a traffic circle at the intersection of Monument Avenue and Allen Avenue (named after Otway Allen, the developer who donated the land to the association). The Lee Monument was a focal point for Richmond. (Most popular online maps depict the "Lee Circle" as the center of Richmond). It was originally the front gate of the Virginia Base Ball Park, where the

Richmond Virginians The Richmond Virginians was the name of a minor league baseball franchise that played in Richmond, Virginia, from 1954 through 1964. The team competed at the Triple-A level as members of the International League, and were affiliated with the ...

used to play.

History

Background

Throughout the war, many American Southerners viewed Lee as a war hero and a master strategist. Following the death of Robert E. Lee in 1870, several organizations were formed with the goal of erecting a monument to Lee in Richmond. These included survivors of Lee's

Army of Northern Virginia The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most oft ...

, the Lee Monument Association led by Confederate general

Jubal Early Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 – March 2, 1894) was a Virginia lawyer and politician who became a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Trained at the United States Military Academy, Early resigned his U.S. Army commissio ...

, and the Ladies' Lee Monument Association. These organizations were merged into the Lee Monument Commission in 1886, led by Lee's nephew and Virginia governor

Fitzhugh Lee Fitzhugh Lee (November 19, 1835 – April 28, 1905) was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish–American War. He was the son of Sydney S ...

and together the funds combined to $52,000.

Construction and dedication

When the construction of the monument was complete, the Lee Monument Association of Virginia sent a representative to France to inspect the work and issue the final payment of $20,000. The journalist Lida McCabe reported on the transaction between the American businessman and the French sculptor, observing that the transaction was forced and uneasy. The Monument Association representative seemed to have little interest in the monument itself and simply occupied himself with his financial duties. McCabe's reporting focused on the dedication that Mercié put into the sculpture. After listening to Mercié, McCabe discovered that he had researched the Civil War and General Lee extensively. McCabe reported that had acquired different props such as saddles and stirrups, coats, and boots to make sure that the monument was as accurate as possible. The cornerstone for the monument was placed on October 27, 1887. The statue arrived in Richmond by rail on May 4, 1890. Newspaper accounts indicate that 10,000 people helped pull four wagons with the pieces of the monument. The completed statue was unveiled on May 29, 1890. Two of Lee's daughters,

Mary Custis Lee Mary Custis Lee (July 12, 1835 — November 22, 1918) was an American heiress and the eldest daughter of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee. Throughout the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, she remai ...

and

Mildred Childe Lee Mildred Childe Lee (February 10, 1846 – March 27, 1905) was an American society hostess and the youngest child of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee. She was the last member of the Lee family to be born at Arlington Plantation and had a p ...

, attended the dedication. 1890 Lee statue unveiling

The site for the statue originally was offered in 1886. Richmond City annexed the land in 1892, but economic difficulties meant that the Lee Monument stood alone for several years in the middle of a tobacco field before development resumed in the early 1900s. In 1992, the iron fence around the monument was removed, in part because drivers unfamiliar with traffic circles would run into the fence from time to time and force costly repairs. After the fences came down, the stone base became a popular sunbathing spot. DuPriest, James E., Jr. and Douglas O. Tice, Jr., Monument & Boulevard: Richmond's Grand Avenues, A Richmond Discoveries Publication, Richmond, VA 1996 p. 8 In December 2006, the state completed an extensive cleaning and repair of the monument. It was listed on the

in 2007, the Virginia Landmarks Register since 2006, and was located in the Monument Avenue Historic District.

Time capsule

During the construction of the Lee Monument, a time capsule from 1887 was reportedly placed in or under one of the cornerstones of the monument base. The original time capsule was said to have roughly 60 items from 30 families and businesses. A state-supervised search for the time capsule at the base of the

proved fruitless and was discontinued on September 9, 2021. Three months later, however, on December 17, crews dismantling the plinth's tower extracted a building block that appeared to contain the time capsule in question. The lead box recovered from the block instead contained mementos from members of the monument's planning commission that dated no earlier than 1889, after the original time capsule had been assembled. A copper box containing a second time capsule was found on December 28 underneath the monument's northeastern cornerstone, as expected. Lists of the contents of these capsules have been published by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) and are available on its website (see

external links An internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain. Hyperlinks are considered either "external" or "internal" depending on their target or destination ...

). On June 22, 2021, Governor Ralph Northam announced plans to replace the 1887 time capsule located at the Lee Monument site. Individuals could submit items to be placed in the new time capsule that they either owned or could obtain. On September 7, Governor Northam announced that the new artifacts would be placed in a new time capsule. Among the 39 items included were artifacts from the

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vaccination campaign, a personalized cloth face mask donated by Virginia First Lady

Pamela Northam Pamela may refer to: *''Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'', a novel written by Samuel Richardson in 1740 *Pamela (name), a given name and, rarely, a surname * Pamela Spence, a Turkish pop-rock singer. Known as her stage name "Pamela" * MSC ''Pamela'', ...

, items from the

Mattaponi The Mattaponi () tribe is one of only two Virginia Indian tribes in the Commonwealth of Virginia that owns reservation land, which it has held since the colonial era. The larger Mattaponi Indian Tribe lives in King William County on the reserva ...

and

Pamunkey The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is one of 11 Virginia Indian tribal governments recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the state's first federally recognized tribe, receiving its status in January 2016. Six other Virginia tribal governments, t ...

nations, a fragment of tarp that covered the

Rumors of War ''Rumors of War'' is a series of artworks by Kehinde Wiley examining equestrian portraiture in the canon of Western art history culminating in a bronze monumental equestrian statue by the artist of an African-American young man (with dreadlocks ...

statue at its unveiling and a railroad spike found near the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground in Richmond. The time capsule will likely be buried near the site of the former memorial.

Recent protests

Controversy, vandalism, and calls for removal

Historians have offered a range of opinions on the monument, often pointing out its problematic perpetuation of the Lost Cause mythology. In August 2017, after the violence that occurred at the

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, ...

, protestors called for the removal of the Lee statue in Charlottesville and Richmond. On June 4, 2020, Virginia governor

announced that the Richmond statue would be removed in response to the protests that followed the

. On June 8, a judge in Richmond Circuit Court issued a temporary injunction against the monument's removal, citing a lawsuit filed by William C. Gregory, who claims the Commonwealth promised to "faithfully guard" and "affectionately protect" the statue in the deed that originally annexed the property to the state. Subsequent legal proceedings led to a hearing on July 23, which concluded without a ruling on the monument's future. A new 90-day injunction against the monument's removal began August 3. After nearby residents filed a lawsuit to keep the statue in its place, Virginia's Attorney General filed a motion to dismiss the suit; circuit court Judge W. Reilly Marchant ruled August 25, 2020 that the matter would proceed to trial. The October 19 trial resulted in a halted decision pending appeal. On September 2, 2021, the

ruled unanimously in the two separate cases affirming the power of Governor Ralph Northam to order the statue removed from state-owned property.

Kudzu

Kudzu Kudzu (; also called Japanese arrowroot or Chinese arrowroot) is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing deciduous perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands, but invasive species, invasive in many ...

is an invasive vine introduced to the South in 1883 and became very difficult to control and tame. Artists have incorporated the vine into their responses to Confederate monuments, including Richmond's Lee Monument. A knitting collective known as the Kudzu Project has created knitted vines and tossed them on monuments. In 2019, the artist Aaron McIntosh created a full-scale installation of the Lee Monument overtaken by kudzu.

Protest actions

Following

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

protests in June 2020, the traffic circle where the statue stood was unofficially updated with a sign that reads "Welcome to Beautiful Marcus-David Peters Circle, Liberated by the People MMXX": memorializing Marcus-David Peters, a Black man from Richmond who was shot and killed by the police in 2018. The area contained signs that told the story of Peters and milestones he missed since his death. The location is often used as protest site to remember all who have died from

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...

. In the wake of protests, the

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

-covered monument increasingly became a venue to portray images of

racial justice Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

and empowerment: from ballerinas dancing at the base of the plinth to video projections of

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

(and others) onto the statue itself. In October 2020 the graffiti-covered monument was deemed among the most influential American protest artworks since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

by the ''New York Times''.

Removal

Following the ruling of the State Supreme Court, the Commonwealth of Virginia approved the removal and the statue was taken down on September 8, 2021, then sent to storage. Governor

issued a statement on the removal of the Lee Monument immediately following the removal:

"After 133 years, the statue of Robert E. Lee has finally come down—the last Confederate statue on Monument Avenue, and the largest in the South. The public monuments reflect the story we choose to tell about who we are as a people. It is time to display history as history, and use the public memorials to honor the full and inclusive truth of who we are today and in the future.”

The Emancipation and Freedom Monument was installed on September 22, 2021 at

Brown's Island Brown's Island is an artificial continental island on the James River in Richmond, Virginia, formed by the Haxall Canal. Part of the city's James River Park, it is the popular venue of a large number of outdoor concerts and festivals in the spr ...

. The transfer of the Lee statue and other monuments to the

Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia The Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA) is an American 501(c)(3) organization and museum established in 1981 and focused on the history of Black and African Americans in the state of Virginia. It is located in the Leigh ...

, was announced December 30, 2021 and given unanimous approval by the Richmond City Council the next month. The vacant pedestal was dismantled in February 2022, and the traffic circle is now a bare patch of grass.

References

External links

*
Contents of the Robert E. Lee Monument Copper Cornerstone Box
Virginia Department of Historic Resources (January 2022)
Contents of the Robert E. Lee Monument Lead Box
Virginia Department of Historic Resources (January 2022)
The day white Virginia stopped admiring Gen. Robert E. Lee and started worshiping him
''Washington Post'' (October 8, 2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Robert Edward, Monument 1890 establishments in Virginia 1890 sculptures 2021 disestablishments in Virginia Monument Avenue Bronze sculptures in Virginia Equestrian statues in Virginia