Nearly four years after the infamous Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017, during which a protester against the proposed removal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville was killed during a car attack, the city in Virginia has taken down the statue on Saturday, polarizing the Americans.
The move follows the Charlottesville City Council voting last month to remove the statues with 10 organizations showing interest for acquiring the statues.
Another statue, one of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, is also scheduled to be removed as the United States continues to take down monuments that are now deemed too controversial removing 168 Confederate statues, monuments, and symbols in 2020 alone.
Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker called the removal of the statue one small step closer to making the US grapple with the sin of being willing to destroy Black people for economic gain.
Some Americans also praised the removal, calling for the statue to be put in a museum or melted into copper piping for a toilet, while accused the city of erasing US history ana wasting taxpayer’s money, but conservative commentator Jesse Kelly protested the move appealing authorities to stop taking down of the monuments negotiating with terrorists who use American values against Americans.
Claiming that that state law prohibits removing war materials, a Virginia state judge issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the removal of the statues in 2019, but the Virginia Supreme Court later tossed that ruling, leaving that decision to the city.
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