A statue of Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, is set to be taken down on Wednesday, September 8.

The 12-ton, six-story bronze statue was a centerpiece of protests over racial injustice.

Per CNN, the Commonwealth of Virginia announced on Sunday it would remove the confederate statue, stashing it in a secure state-owned storage site until a decision on its future is finalized.

Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announced plans to remove the statue in June 2020, 10 days after white Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, who was Black, sparking nationwide protests.

Statues honoring leaders of the pro-slavery Confederate side in the American Civil War have become a focus of protests against racism in recent years.

Many have been not only campaigning, but protesting against the statues as they rallied for their removal.

Lawsuits seeking to block the removal were filed by nearby residents who said they had a property right to keep the statue in place, per ABC News.

However, the court disagreed, saying the documents that controlled the statue's location were outdated and unenforceable.

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Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said whatever replaces the Lee statue should send the clear message that "Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy."

"We are a diverse, open and welcoming city, and our symbols need to reflect that reality," he added.

It comes as another statue of Robert E. Lee, that stood proudly in Charlottesville, Virginia, was also removed back in July, along with a statue of General Stonewall Jackson.

The statues played a key part in the 2017 Unite The Right rally, which ended with Heather Heyer being killed after a neo-Nazi drove his truck into the crowd of counter-protesters.

After her tragic death, the city planned on removing the controversial statues, however several people then launched lawsuits against the Virginia city in a desperate bid to block the removal of the statues.

Despite their efforts, The Supreme Court ruled in April that the city could remove the statues, overturning a circuit court’s 2017 decision to keep them in place.

It's since been argued that having Confederate general statues pays tribute to America's history of slavery and racism.

Then on Saturday, July 10, work finally began to remove the statues.

The vote took place on Monday, July 5, and passed unanimously. After voting took place, residents were given 30 days to decide where the statues should be relocated to.

The city is requesting proposals "for any museum, historical society, government or military battlefield interested in acquiring the Statues, or either of them, for relocation and placement", per CNN.

Until a new home is found for the statues, they will remain in storage, according to The Guardian.

Featured image credit: Anne Rippy / Alamy

Two Confederate statues that sparked mass rallies that ended in fatalities have finally been taken down in Charlottesville.

After years of campaigning, the statues of General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson have finally been removed, per CNN.

The statues played a key part in the 2017 Unite The Right rally, which ended with Heather Heyer being killed after a neo-Nazi drove his truck into the crowd of counter-protesters.

After her tragic death, the city planned on removing the controversial statues, however several people then launched lawsuits against the Virginia city in a desperate bid to block the removal of the statues.

Despite their efforts, The Supreme Court ruled in April that the city could remove the statues, overturning a circuit court’s 2017 decision to keep them in place.

It's since been argued that having Confederate general statues pays tribute to America's history of slavery and racism.

Then on Saturday, July 10, work finally began to remove the statues.

The vote took place on Monday, July 5, and passed unanimously. After voting took place, residents were given 30 days to decide where the statues should be relocated to.

The city is requesting proposals "for any museum, historical society, government or military battlefield interested in acquiring the Statues, or either of them, for relocation and placement", per CNN.

Until a new home is found for the statues, they will remain in storage, according to The Guardian.

Brian Wheeler, director of communications for the City of Charlottesville, told CNN that after several years of intense effort, the city has "taken a major step forward towards telling a more complete history of our community.

He said in a statement: "We look forward to transforming our downtown parks by removing these racist symbols of Charlottesville's past.

"There remains much work to be done in Charlottesville's future as we work towards the goals of racial and economic justice, but this is an important milestone in that journey."

In 2017, one White supremacist killed counterprotester, Heyer, and injured 19 others when he plowed his car into a crowd.

Many more were injured in separate incidents during the weekend rally.

Zyahna Bryant, who drafted a petition to Charlottesville City Council to remove the statues over five years ago as high school student, told CNN the decision to remove the statues is "a win" and more must be done.

She told the outlet: "I want to emphasize that this is not the end of the work to dismantle the very systems and structures that these statues represent, in fact, this is only the beginning - the removal of these statues is low-hanging fruit.

"However, I want to be clear that there can be no unity and healing without reckoning with our full and complete history, one that includes the voices of those who have been traditionally silenced, marginalized, and erased; and a true commitment to racial equity through the redistribution of resources."

Featured image credit: James Nesterwitz / Alamy

Robert E Lee was a "genius" who could have led America to victory in Afghanistan, Donald Trump has said.

The former POTUS did not withhold praise for the Confederate Civil War General, whose statue has been removed from Virginia's capital city on Wednesday, September 8.

Per Politico, Trump decried the decision by Virginia to remove the "magnificent" 12-ton, six-story bronze statue of the Confederate general, which was a centerpiece of protests over racial injustice.

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"Just watched as a massive crane took down the magnificent and very famous statue of 'Robert E Lee On His Horse' in Richmond, Virginia. It has long been recognized as a beautiful piece of bronze sculpture," Trump said in a lengthy statement.

"To add insult to injury, those who support this ‘taking’ now plan to cut it into three pieces, and throw this work of art into storage prior to its complete desecration."

The statue's removal comes after symbols of the Confederacy across the country were targeted amid the Black Lives Matter protests last year, following the killing of George Floyd.

Such symbols were deemed racist, with founder of BLM RV Lawrence West telling CNN on Tuesday: "With the coming down of the monument it is also a part of coming down with those types of ideals. It brings some closure to the conversation, 'It's OK to be racist'."

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The statue was removed at approximately 9 AM local time, as a surrounding crowd chanted "Black lives matter" and sung "Na, na, na, na! Hey, hey, hey! Goodbye!"

In his statement, Trump dubbed Lee as the "greatest strategist of them all".

"President Lincoln wanted him to command the North, in which case the war would have been over in one day. Robert E Lee instead chose the other side because of his great love of Virginia, and except for Gettysburg, would have won the war," he said.

"He should be remembered as perhaps the greatest unifying force after the war was over, ardent in his resolve to bring the North and South together through many means of reconciliation and imploring his soldiers to do their duty in becoming good citizens of this country."

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He added: "Our culture is being destroyed and our history and heritage, both good and bad, are being extinguished by the Radical Left, and we can’t let that happen!"

Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announced plans to remove the statue in June 2020, 10 days after white Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, who was Black, sparking nationwide protests.

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said whatever replaces the Lee statue should send the clear message that "Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy."

"We are a diverse, open and welcoming city, and our symbols need to reflect that reality," he added.

Featured image credit: Philip Scalia / Alamy

The recent violence in Charlottesville has dominated the headlines over the past week or so, with plenty of debate over the prevalence and legitimacy of white nationalist groups throughout the United States. 20-year-old James Fields has been charged with second degree murder after he drove his car into a crowd, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring a further 19, while President Trump has come under heavy fire for failing to condemn the actions of white supremacists. The entire conflict was sparked by a Unite the Right movement in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a large group of people protested the removal of a statue of Confederate leader Genera Robert E. Lee. The decision has been criticized, not least by the president himself, but his very descendants are not among the people who wish for the decision to be reversed. Robert E. Lee V is the great-great grandson of Robert E. Lee, and alongside his sister Tracy Lee Crittenberger, the 54-year-old released a statement expressing that removing the statues may be "appropriate", while condemning "hateful words and violent actions of white supremacists, the KKK or neo-Nazis" at last weekend's rally. "Eventually, someone is going to have to make a decision, and if that's the local lawmaker, so be it. But we have to be able to have that conversation without all of the hatred and the violence. And if they choose to take those statues down, fine. "[...] Those sorts of acts on Saturday, that's just not to be tolerated. We feel strongly that Gen. Lee would never ever stand for that sort of violence. We just want people to know that the Lee family just really wants to send their best to the people in Charlottesville." Now working as an athletic director at a school in Virginia, Robert E. Lee V believes that his notorious ancestor would not have approved of the "senseless" violence, and criticized the idea of white nationalists hiding behind his great-great grandfather's name in order to commit these atrocious acts. "Our belief is that General Lee would not tolerate that sort of behavior either. His first thing to do after the Civil War was to bring the Union back together, so we could become a more unified country." Rather than destroying the statues, however, Lee believes that it would make sense to move the statues depicting the Confederates to a museum, so they can be appreciated in their proper historical context. "I think that is absolutely an option, to move it to a museum and put it in the proper historical context. Times were very different then. We look at the institution of slavery, and it's absolutely horrendous. Back then, times were just extremely different. We understand that it's complicated in 2017, when you look back at that period of time...  If you want to put statues of General Lee or other Confederate people in museums, that makes good sense." While it's certainly a good idea to remove statues of Confederate leaders from public view in the United States, it certainly can be argued that times have changed drastically since the Civil War, and Robert E. Lee V says that by moving the statues to a museum, we can consign them to little more than a reminder of America's past.

A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was torn down by protesters along Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday night per TIME and others.

According to reports, the statue was toppled at around 11pm with Richmond police on the scene, while videos showed a cheering crowd watch the monument being towed away.

Nick Conigliaro of 8 News shared a video of the toppled statue on Twitter, writing;

"BREAKING: The Jefferson Davis statue on Monument Ave. has been pulled down tonight, this video is from a person in the area who tells me police are now on scene."

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Meanwhile, WTVR CBS 6 Richmond shared pictures of the statue on the floor, writing "BREAKING: The Jefferson Davis statue on Richmond's Monument Avenue has been pulled down. This is a developing story."

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Per TIME, roughly 80 miles away, protesters in Portsmouth beheaded and pulled down four statues that made up part of a confederate monument. The protesters' efforts there began at roughly 8.20pm after frustrations over Portsmouth City Council's decision to delay moving the monument.

This comes after a statue of Christopher Columbus was also torn down in downtown Richmond earlier this week.

One woman hailed the toppling of the statue as a moment of change for the city;

“I think it’s phenomenal," Maureen Stinger said. "I know some people have a lot of emotional attachment to some of these monuments, but I believe with them coming down, that is one very strong step toward more unity within the city. And I think that can only be a good thing.”

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This news comes as unrest continues to unfold across the US and around the world, as protests - some peaceful, some violent - are calling out the systemic injustices carried out against black people, not least seen by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.

As well as a call for justice, these ongoing protests are also demanding an end to police brutality and the racism that is so deeply entrenched in America and the western world.

The message is simple: Black lives matter.

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