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Wednesday, the state of Virginia removed the 12-ton statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee more than 130 years after it was installed amid efforts to change the collective memory of the Civil War.
Despite its massive size, it was lifted from its pedestal in one piece and is headed for storage. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, was there as the statue came down and appeared pleased by its removal. A crowd also chanted and cheered as Lee — atop a horse — was lifted into the air by a crane.
Northam announced plans to remove the statue in June 2020, during nightly racial justice protests in Richmond, Va., after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, but that plan was held up by lawsuits, including one from a group of residents from Richmond's historic Monument Avenue that wanted to keep the 40-foot tall memorial intact. Last week, the Virginia Supreme Court decided to bring it down.