Virginia lawmakers announced Monday a statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee had been removed from the U.S. Capitol and would no longer be used to represent that state’s history there.
“We should all be proud of this important step forward for our Commonwealth and our country,” Governor Ralph Northam said in a statement. “The Confederacy is a symbol of Virginia’s racist and divisive history, and it is past time we tell our story with images of perseverance, diversity, and inclusion.”
Each state is entitled to display two statues in the National Statuary Hall, and Lee was chosen alongside President George Washington to represent Virginia. The Lee statue had been located in the Crypt of the Capitol, representing one of the 13 original colonies.
Earlier this year, the state’s General Assembly voted to set up a commission on the statue, which decided to replace it with one of Barbara Johns, a civil rights activist.
Various other statues of Confederates remain in the Capitol, including those of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, representing Mississippi, and his vice president, Alexander Stephens, from Georgia -- the author of the “Cornerstone Speech” defending white supremacy as the founding cornerstone of the Confederacy.
President Trump has threatened to veto a defense bill this week because it would begin a process to rename military bases named after Confederates.
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