Status: 07/10/2021 4:15 p.m.
For years there has been a dispute in the US city of Charlottesville over the statue of a southern general. Plans to remove it had sparked protests by right-wing extremists in 2017. Now the statue has been removed.
Almost four years after the fatal march of right-wing extremists in the US city of Charlottesville, the controversial statue of Southern General Robert E. Lee has been removed. TV images showed the statue being lifted from its pedestal with a crane and loaded onto a truck.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker gave a speech as the crane approached the statue. According to the city, the statue will be stored pending a final decision on its future.
Nazi march four years ago
Plans to remove the Lee statue sparked protests by neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists in Charlottesville in August 2017. During racist riots, a female counter-demonstrator was hit by a car and killed. The then US President Donald Trump then caused outrage by saying that there had been “very good people” on both sides.
Southern states wanted to maintain slavery
General Robert E. Lee led the Confederates in the Southern Civil War against the Northern States. The southern states, which were largely agricultural at the time, fought vehemently against the abolition of slavery and against more rights for blacks under Lee’s leadership.
Lee is being glorified as a hero by the right wing scene in the US today. In addition to his monument, a statue of Southern General Thomas J. Jackson is also to be removed from Charlottesville.
The city council of Charlottesville had already decided in February 2016 to remove the Lee statue. Years of legal tug-of-war followed. The city renamed the former Lee Park, in which the statue stood, to Market Street Park.