Confederate Statue Removed After 111 Years In Charlottesville

A bronze statue of a Confederate soldier is no longer standing outside the Albermarle County Courthouse in Charlottesville, Virginia, after 111 years. The statue was removed from its pedestal in front of a cheering crowd.

About 100 people, all wearing masks, watched as workers removed a 900-pound statue known as “At Ready.” The audience was cheering and dancing to music, and some donned blue Union Civil War caps for the event, the Washington Post reports.

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The monument and a cannon were both removed seemingly without any opposition on Saturday.

However, there are many who want to keep Confederate monuments. In 2017, Charlottesville became the site of a Unite the Right rally, where a domestic terrorist deliberately drove his car into a crowd of peaceful counter-protestors, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

The 2017 protests were sparked by the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Market Street Park (called Lee Park at the time) in Charlottesville.

The city council voted to remove both the Lee statue and a Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson monument. However, a lawsuit has been filed to keep the Confederate statues, and the case is likely to go to the Virginia Supreme Court, NBC says.

Several states and organizations across the U.S. are reckoning with how to handle Confederate flags and monuments. Mississippi is redesigning their state flag to remove the Confederacy’s battle flag, and the symbol is basically banned at military installations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump recently called the flag a “proud” symbol of the south.