Robert Edward Lee sculpture covered in tarp

The Robert E. Lee Monument was an outdoor bronze

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...

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 ...

general Robert E. Lee and his horse Traveller located in Charlottesville, Virginia's

Market Street Park Market Street Park, known as Lee Park until 2017, and as Emancipation Park from June 2017 to July 2018, is a public park in Charlottesville, Virginia. History The land for the park was purchased in 1917 by Paul Goodloe McIntire to be the setting ...

(formerly Emancipation Park, and before that Lee Park) in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District. The statue was commissioned in 1917 and dedicated in 1924, and in 1997 was 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 ...

. It was removed on July 10, 2021. In February 2017, as part of the movement for the

removal of Confederate monuments and memorials More than 100 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America (CSA; the Confederacy) and associated figures have been removed, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn do ...

, the Charlottesville City Council voted 3–2 for the statue's removal, along with the Stonewall Jackson statue, and for the Lee Park to be renamed. The removal proposal generated controversy. A lawsuit was filed on March 20, 2017, and in May 2017 a temporary injunction against its removal was granted by a judge, citing a Virginia state law that blocked the removal.

White supremacists White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

organized 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, ...

for August 2017 to protest the proposed removal that drew numerous far-right groups from across the United States; this rally in turn caused counterdemonstrations, which in turn caused serious clashes; the event took a deadly turn when a white supremacist rammed a car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators, killing one and wounding 35. On August 23, 2017, the council had the statue shrouded in black, which in February 2018 a judge ordered removed. In July 2019 a permanent injunction was granted and in July 2020 the state law was amended to remove the grounds for objection raised by the judge. The

Virginia Supreme Court 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 administrativ ...

lifted the injunction in April 2021, holding that the state law thought to restrict the removal did not apply retroactively to statutes passed before its effect (the law was applied to Virginia cities in 1997, but the statue had been erected in 1924). However, rather than immediately remove the statute, the city opted to employ the new removal process authorized under the law's 2020 amendments, which entails public notice, a public hearing after thirty days, and thirty days to field offers for relocation of the statue. On July 9, 2021, the City Council announced that the Lee Monument would be removed the following day, and, on July 10, 2021, both the Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues were removed by the city.

History

In 1917,

Paul Goodloe McIntire Paul Goodloe McIntire (1860–1952) was an American stockbroker, investor, and philanthropist from Virginia. He served on the Chicago and New York Stock Exchanges. He was a generous donor to the University of Virginia and its home, the city of ...

commissioned the statue from the artist Henry Shrady (1871–1922). It was the second of four works he commissioned from members of the

National Sculpture Society Founded in 1893, the National Sculpture Society (NSS) was the first organization of professional sculptors formed in the United States. The purpose of the organization was to promote the welfare of American sculptors, although its founding members ...

. McIntire wanted a public setting for the statue, buying a city block of land and demolishing existing structures on it to create a formal landscaped square, later named Lee Park (currently

), the first of four parks he would donate to Charlottesville. Shrady was chronically ill at the time of the commission – he worked on it slowly and it was still unfinished on his death in 1922.

Leo Lentelli Leo Lentelli (20 October 1879 – 31 December 1961) was an Italian sculptor who immigrated to the United States. During his 52 years in the United States he created works throughout the country, notably in New York and San Francisco. He also taugh ...

(1879–1961) completed the sculpture in 1924, and it was dedicated on May 21 of that year. It was cast in the

Roman Bronze Works Roman Bronze Works, now operated as Roman Bronze Studios, is a bronze foundry in New York City. Established in 1897 by Riccardo Bertelli, it was the first American foundry to specialize in the lost-wax casting method, and was the country's pre-emin ...

of Brooklyn, New York. Comparison with a surviving model of the proposed statue by Shrady reveals Lentelli's version is less animated than that intended by Shrady. The oval granite pedestal was designed by the architect Walter Blair and on its side has the inscription "Robert Edward Lee" with the dates 1807 and 1870. The sculpture and pedestal combined are approximately 26 feet high, 12 feet long, and 8 feet wide () at the bottom of the pedestal. an
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Attempts to remove the statue

In March 2016, Charlottesville's Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy publicly called on city council to remove the Lee statue and rename Lee Park, saying that the statue's presence "disrespected" parts of the community, and that he had "spoken with several different people who have said they have refused to step foot (

sic The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

) in that park because of what that statue and the name of that park represents. And we can't have that in the city of Charlottesville." Local NAACP head Rick Turner supported removal, calling Lee a terrorist. Others accused the city council and Bellamy of disregarding Lee's historical significance; overlooking his importance to Virginia; sowing division; and trying to rewrite history. A petition to remove the statue was initiated, with wording saying the statue represented "hate" and was a "subliminal message of racism". In April 2016, the city council appointed a special commission, named the

Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Monuments and Public Spaces The Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces is a committee in Charlottesville, Virginia which the city established in 2016 to address the Charlottesville historic monument controversy. In August 2016 Sue Lewis accepted an appoin ...

, to recommend to city officials how to best handle issues surrounding statues of Stonewall Jackson ( ''Thomas Jonathan Jackson'') in Court Square and Lee in Lee Park, as well as other landmarks and monuments. Early in November 2016, the Blue Ribbon Commission voted 6–3 to let both statues remain in place. On November 28, 2016, it voted 7–2 to remove the Lee statue to McIntire Park in Charlottesville and 8–1 to keep the Jackson statue in place, delivering a final report with that recommendation to Charlottesville City Council in December. On February 6, 2017, Charlottesville's five-member city council voted 3-2 to remove the Lee statue and, unanimously, to rename Lee Park.

Lawsuit

In response, a lawsuit was filed on March 20, 2017, by multiple plaintiffs, including the Monument Fund Inc, the

Sons of Confederate Veterans The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors, funds and dedicates monuments to them, and promotes the pseudohis ...

, and descendants of the statue's donor and sculptor, to block the removal of the Lee and Jackson statues. The lawsuit sought a temporary injunction to halt the removal, arguing that Charlottesville City Council's decision violated a state law designed to protect veterans' monuments and memorials, in this case veterans of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, and that the council had additionally violated the terms of McIntire's gift to Charlottesville of the statue and the land for Lee Park. The city responded by asking that the temporary injunction be denied, arguing that the two statues were not Confederate monuments and therefore outside the law's protection. The City also argued that the law did not apply to any monuments erected before it was amended to apply to cities in 1997 -- which argument ultimately prevailed. In April 2017, the city council voted 3-2 (exactly along the lines of the February vote) that the statue be removed completely from Charlottesville and sold to whoever the council chooses. On May 2, 2017, Judge Richard Moore issued a temporary injunction blocking the removal of the Lee statue for six months, in the public's interest, pending his final decision in the suit. In October 2019 Judge Moore ruled that local authorities in Charlottesville cannot remove the two Confederate statues because they were war memorials protected by state law, and issued a permanent injunction preventing their removal. On April 1, 2021, the Virginia Supreme Court overturned Judge Moore's decision and lifted the injunction.

Unite the Right rally

On May 13, 2017, neo-Nazi

Richard B. Spencer Richard Bertrand Spencer (born May 1978) is an American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and white supremacist. A former editor, he is a public speaker and activist on behalf of the alt-right movement. He advocates for the r ...

led a torch-lit rally in Lee Park in protest at the

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

town council's decision to remove and sell the statue and chanted "you will not replace us" and "Russia is our friend". Some of the ralliers procured

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

tiki torch A tiki torch is a pole-mounted torch, typically made of bamboo, that originated in the tiki culture of the mid-20th-century United States, which has increased in popularity and spread to other places as a popular party decoration with a tropica ...

es for a second, nighttime rally and shouted slogans including "Jews will not replace us", but put out their torches and left as police officers began to arrive to disperse them. Protesters to the rally itself gathered the following day and held a silent candlelight vigil that attracted over a hundred of the town's citizens, and the incumbent mayor of Charlottesville,

Michael Signer Michael Signer is an American attorney, author, and politician who served as mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia. Early life and education Signer is the son of Marjorie B. Signer, a communications director, and Robert Signer, a newspaper assignm ...

. Signer, who opposed the statue's removal, condemned the initial rally the night before. The organizations dedicated to preserving the ''Robert E. Lee'' statue issued a statement denying any involvement in the rally. Despite some conflict, no arrests were made and no one was injured. On July 8, 2017, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Charlottesville protesting the city's plan to remove the statue. The approximately 50 Klansmen were met by several hundred counter-protesters. The police used

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

to disperse the crowd, and made 23 arrests. On August 12, 2017, during the Unite the Right rally, clashes broke out between supporters of the statue, who marched under Confederate, American, and Revolutionary flags, and counter-protesters. During the rally, counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed and 19 injured by a car ramming attack.

City and public responses

On August 20, 2017, the city council unanimously voted to shroud both the Lee and Jackson statues in black. The council "also decided to direct the city manager to take an administrative step that would make it easier to eventually remove the Jackson statue." The statues were covered in black shrouds on August 23, 2017. On Tuesday, February 27, 2018 Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore ruled that the City of Charlottesville must remove the black tarps covering the statues, and the city complied removing the shrouds a day later. Sometime overnight between Friday July 7 and Saturday July 8, 2017, the statue was vandalized by being daubed in red paint. It had been vandalized before; in June 2016, the pedestal was spray painted with the words "Black Lives Matter". In 2018, the statue was placed on the Make It Right Project's list of ten Confederate monuments it most wanted to see removed. In October 14, 2019, both statues were damaged by a chisel (the Jackson statue being damaged a second time, as it was prior in September). Charlottesville police stated that they were investigating the vandalism. On November 28, 2019, the statue was painted with graffiti, saying: "Impeach Trump" and "This is Racist".

Removal

On the morning of July 10, 2021, the statue was removed from its plinth by the city. The mayor of Charlottesville,

Nikuyah Walker Nikuyah Walker was the mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia from 2018 to 2021. She became the city's first black female mayor in January 2018, after being elected to the Charlottesville City Council. Personal life Walker was born and raised in C ...

, stated that "Taking down this statue is one small step closer to the goal of helping Charlottesville, Virginia, and America, grapple with the sin of being willing to destroy Black people for economic gain." The statue was taken away from the site on a flatbed truck. The city stated that statue would be put into storage and the stone base removed at a later date, and that the final disposition of the statue was yet to be decided.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Robert Edward, Sculpture 1924 establishments in Virginia 1924 sculptures Art works that caused riots Bronze sculptures in Virginia Buildings and structures in Charlottesville, Virginia Equestrian statues in Virginia Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Virginia Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Charlottesville, Virginia Outdoor sculptures in Charlottesville, Virginia Sculptures of men in Virginia Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Virginia Removed Confederate States of America monuments and memorials Vandalized works of art in Virginia Charlottesville historic monument controversy Statues removed in 2021 Monuments and memorials in Virginia removed during the George Floyd protests