Workers used a crane to remove a Confederate statue from its pedestal this morning and lift an enormous weight from a community still scarred by the racist violence of 2017’s Unite the Right rally.
Crowds cheered behind metal barricades as the bronze figure of a Confederate soldier known as “At Ready” was taken down after 111 years outside a county courthouse in this historic university city.
Streets that had surged with white supremacists three years ago now rang with music and happy cheers. Families brought small children in blue Union Civil War caps.
People wearing Black Lives Matter shirts danced as a student radio station played Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Sly and the Family Stone.
“This is a magnificent moment,” said community organizer Don Gathers, 61. “Much of the racial tension, strife and protest we’re seeing across the country emanates from right here in Charlottesville. But now we’re moving the needle in a positive way.”
Albemarle County supervisors voted earlier this summer to take down the Confederate memorial outside their courthouse.
The statue was not the focal point of the violent rally in 2017 that left one counterprotester dead.
But it is a block away from the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups said they were defending in a clash that endures as a symbol of the nation’s racial divide.
“These statues have been haunting this community for decades but especially since Unite the Right,” said Del. Sally L. Hudson (D-Charlottesville), who sponsored legislation Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed into law this year empowering localities to remove Civil War statues. “This part of town felt like a ghost town for the last three years because of all the violence. For us, taking down this statue is one step in reclaiming these public spaces.”
Charlottesville’s city council voted to remove both the Lee monument and another nearby depicting fellow Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, but a small group of Confederate supporters filed suit to save them.
The case is headed to the Supreme Court of Virginia and could take months to be resolved.
In the meantime, armed individuals and groups have continued to make periodic “patrols” around the Confederate figures in the area near the courthouse.
Small clusters of police officers stood at various points around the courthouse square early Friday evening but kept a low profile Saturday.
There was no obvious sign of Confederate sympathizers at the scene.
County and city officials put up metal and plastic barriers around the courthouse to keep people away from the work zone, citing concerns about the need to preserve social distancing to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus.
“This is school right now,” said Shannon Gillikin, 36, who came with her husband and three young children. “They’ve been learning about this for three years, and we wanted them to see that work can have an impact.”
Confederate statues have been removed across Virginia this year, as protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May have focused attention on the monuments as symbols of racial oppression.
In Richmond, protesters pulled down a grand figure of Jefferson Davis. Mayor Levar Stoney, invoking a state of emergency in the Virginia capital, ordered an additional 11 Confederate memorials taken down
A judge’s injunction challenging Stoney’s action was thrown out by the state Supreme Court, which ruled that the plaintiff lacked legal standing.
Northam has ordered the removal of a titanic sculpture of Lee on state property along Richmond’s Monument Avenue, but work has been blocked because of an ongoing court challenge.
In June, Confederate statues were removed from public spaces in Alexandria and Norfolk as officials cited safety concerns.
Then, Albemarle became the first locality in Virginia to use the legal process for getting rid of statues after the state law took effect July 1.
Albemarle’s supervisors moved that day to schedule a public hearing on the topic.
After a public comment period, the board voted unanimously in early August to take down the statue, which was erected in 1909, along with two cannons and a stack of cannonballs.
It spent 30 more days receiving proposals for where to relocate the monument, and agreed to send the group of objects to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
Based in New Market, the foundation helps preserve and promote tourism at Civil War battlefields in eight counties that were collectively designated as a national historic district in 1996.