Crixell Matthews/VPM
On Wednesday, the largest confederate statue in the country went splitsville, in more ways than one. Crews removed the equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee from its pedestal on Richmond’s Monument Avenue, then cut it into two pieces to facilitate transportation.
Crixell Matthews/VPM
This article discusses the action: “On Wednesday, the state of Virginia removed the 12-ton statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee more than 130 years after it was installed in Richmond. 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 the statue of Lee — atop a horse — was lifted into the air by a crane. … In the decades following its construction in 1890, the statue became a focal point for a wealthy, all-white neighborhood; Lee was later joined by statues to other Confederate leaders. In 1996, a statue of Black tennis champion Arthur Ashe was added to the avenue despite serious opposition under the direction of then-Gov. Douglas Wilder, the first Black person to serve as governor of any state since Reconstruction. Lee’s statue was the largest Confederate monument in the city of Richmond and one of the largest in the country. Nearly every other Confederate statue in Virginia’s capital was removed last summer, either by protesters or the city itself at the request of Mayor Levar Stoney.”
Of course the failed president with the 5th grade mentality had to show his ignorance and racism once more. This article tells us, “The ex-president had a full meltdown over the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday.
- That statue was a ‘work of art,’ Trump fumed in a statement through his Save America PAC, in which he complained that the general who fought to keep Black people in chains ‘should be remembered as perhaps the greatest unifying force after the war was over.’
- Trump also tried to argue that Lee would’ve been victorious in Afghanistan and ‘what an embarrassment we are suffering because we don’t have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!’
- Fox News host Laura Ingraham was similarly indignant because ‘Of course, he fought for the Confederacy, he owned slaves,’ BUT ‘he also played an indispensable role in post-war Reconstruction that was just instrumental in reuniting the country.’ “
Fortunately, as this article shows, there are some Republicans who are disgusted by The Failure’s love for a traitor to the United States who was an enemy of our country, responsible for the deaths of more American soldiers than Osama bin Laden, Hitler, and the Taliban ever dreamed of, who fought for slavery and white supremacy. “Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, and several other prominent conservatives slammed former President Donald Trump after he released a Wednesday statement praising Confederate General Robert E. Lee. … Kinzinger was quick to condemn Trump for praising a traitor who led the South’s military in an effort to tear the country apart. He urged Republican leaders to denounce the former president’s remarks as well. ‘I wonder what @GOPLeader [Kevin McCarthy] thinks of this statement? Yesterday he announced that Trump would be headlining the @NRCC fundraiser in Tampa this November. Would this country be better with the genius of Robert E Lee? The GOP must condemn this, Or am i again the only one? [sic],’ the GOP lawmaker tweeted. … Other conservatives who have long been critical of Trump slammed the statement on Lee as well. ‘The ‘genius’ of Robert E. Lee almost ripped America in two forever. Trump is trying hard to finish the job,’ Miles Taylor, who previously served as chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration, tweeted. Taylor left his role in the Trump administration in 2019 and went on to become a prominent critic of the former president. ‘Trump’s love of losers knows no bounds since he has entered their ranks. Robert E. Lee admitted defeat, and lived with it. Trump pretends he was not defeated for he is not man enough to handle it,’ John W. Dean, who served as White House counsel in the administration of former GOP President Richard Nixon, tweeted.”
In this article, Brigadier General (Ret.) and Professor Ty Seidule tells us, “How the mighty have fallen. Or in this case, how far the enormous statue of Robert E. Lee has fallen from its high perch over Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. On Wednesday, the Confederate general’s statue took one final, ignoble ride out of the state capital. Despite former President Donald Trump’s ridiculous protests to the contrary, Lee’s reputation today seems to mirror his statue: cut to pieces. In 1861, when Lee chose to resign from the U.S. Army, abrogating his officer’s oath and accepting a commission in the Virginia militia, many condemned his action. In fact, when Lee gathered his Unionist family to tell them of his decision, he reportedly acknowledged they would disagree with him. Other Virginians also questioned his decision. There were eight colonels in the U.S. Army from Virginia at the time the state seceded. All West Pointers, seven remained loyal. Lee and only Lee chose treason, chose to try to destroy the United States. And in doing so, he chose to fight for a new country dedicated to human enslavement. He certainly understood slavery, having spent more than two years from late 1857 to early 1860 running the plantation at Arlington, with its around 200 enslaved workers. Lee fought for slavery because he believed in slavery. That is the context of why his statue in Richmond needed to come down, as have similar statues across the country. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant destroyed Lee’s army. Yet, Lee remained the most revered figure among white Southerners for the next hundred years. Statues went up to his memory all over the South, including the 1890 gargantuan statue in Richmond. The state of Virginia led the nation in making Lee an American hero.”
General Seidule tells us, “But the reverence for Lee served a terrible purpose: to further a white supremacist society. It’s time for Virginia — and the rest of America — to move on. To be clear, Lee has always had critics. Frederick Douglass recoiled at the ‘nauseating flatteries’ about Lee. Douglass abhorred statues to him, calling them ‘monuments of folly.’ In 1928, W.E.B. DuBois criticized Lee because he ‘ed a bloody war to perpetuate slavery.’ As historian Hilary Green has shown, the Black citizens of Richmond protested mightily against monuments to Lee and the Confederates. Yet, groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy worked overtime to ensure all white Americans saw Lee through the lens of the ‘Lost Cause‘ mythology. That myth required a sainted figure, and groups like the UDC chose the most successful soldier in gray. The UDC controlled textbooks to ensure Lee was presented in a god-like fashion and the true cause of the Civil War, slavery, was obscured. Among white Americans, the UDC’s view of the war came close to winning, especially after the last Civil War veterans died. During this time, the white South gained political dominance by rewriting its constitutions to exclude Blacks from political power. Flattering biographies of Lee furthered the lie that the Confederates really didn’t fight over slavery. Incredibly, Lee became a symbol of strength and patriotism for most white Americans during World War I and War II.”
He continues, “President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Lee monument in Dallas, calling Lee a true American gentleman. President Dwight Eisenhower kept a painting of Lee in the Oval Office. Lee’s transformation from traitor to American hero seemed complete. During the civil rights era, Virginia commissioned fourth, seventh and 11th grade textbooks that made Lee the most important part of the Civil War history. By concentrating on Lee, Virginia could avoid talking about slavery during a time it fought segregation through ‘massive resistance’ to federal court rulings. By the 1970s, criticism was taking root, as a few historians as well as many Black activists started to gain ground against the Lee mythology. Still, movies like ‘Gettysburg’ in 1993 still made Lee look like a gentleman warrior. But finally, the facts started to catch up. Historians wrote about how his army captured free Black people in Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg campaign and shipped them South for enslavement. One Pennsylvanian called it ‘a regular slave-hunt.’ Lee’s army slaughtered Black prisoners of war after the Battle of the Crater in 1864. After the war, Lee testified before Congress that if he had the choice, he would force all Black people to leave Virginia, a call for ethnic cleansing. Lee called Black people fit only to serve as a laboring class with no political rights. Lee’s own words damned him. In 2015, the view of the Confederacy changed for most Americans, finally. When a white supremacist murdered churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, a picture surfaced of him holding a Confederate flag. Clearly, Dylann Roof understood what the United Daughters of the Confederacy had worked so hard to obscure. Then, white nationalists flying the Confederate flag and the Nazi flag marched to save the Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. Those racists also understood what many other Americans seemed to avoid. The Confederacy, and its leader Robert E. Lee, fought to maintain a society built on racial slavery.”
General Seidule concludes, “Predictably, Trump’s statement supporting Lee trots out all of the top myths and half-truths: that he was a brilliant general and true American patriot who only wanted what was best for Virginia. Such words ring quite hollow. Indeed, in many ways, the mainstream view of Lee today has come full circle. Black Americans and loyal military officers believed Lee chose treason to preserve slavery during the Civil War. We should commemorate people who represent our national values. As the Lee statue rides off in pieces, Richmond, at least, represents the America we should hope to become.”
In this article we learn, “Now, the state is announcing new plans for the base that used to hold the massive statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. They’re going to remove a 133-year-old copper time capsule inside the pedestal and replace it with one that they say will reflect the current cultural climate in Virginia. ‘The past 18 months have seen historic change, from the pandemic to protests for racial justice that led to the removal of these monuments to a lost cause,’ Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a news release. ‘It is fitting that we replace the old time capsule with a new one that tells that story.’ … The original time capsule was placed in the pedestal of the Confederate monument on Oct. 27, 1887, according to Virginia historians. In a statement from Northam’s office, officials said records from the Library of Virginia show that the people of Richmond contributed approximately 60 artifacts featured inside of the capsule. Some of the objects of the old capsule are believed to have ties to the Confederacy, the governor’s office said. ‘This monument and its time capsule reflected Virginia in 1890—and it’s time to remove both so that our public spaces better reflect who we are as a people in 2021,’ Northam said. When the capsule is removed on Thursday, state officials said the original capsule will be given to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources — making room for the Commonwealth’s new capsule in its place.”
We’re told, “The new capsule was created by Virginia artist Paul DiPasquale, the sculptor behind both the Arthur Ashe monument in Richmond and the King Neptune statue in Virginia Beach. According to the governor’s office, a group of historians, educators, artists and state officials worked together to select nearly 40 submissions to be placed inside the new time capsule. Some of the items include a photo of a Black ballerina taken by a local Richmond photographer in front of the statue, Kente cloth worn at the 400th commemoration of 1619, a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sticker, ‘Stop Asian Hate’ fliers, an LGBTQ pride pin, and an expired vial of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. ‘Now in 2021, this capsule gives future Virginians artifacts of the tectonic transition that has happened to us,’ DiPasquale said. ‘The pedestal marks the past and has a new message for the future: we, all of us, are the New Virginia.’ “
Predictably, the racist supporters of the confederacy on the internet are outraged.
That group, by the way, is one of the best on the internet. It’s unfortunate internet groups normally have to tolerate racists in their ranks in order to generate conversations.
Student of the American Civil War 