Charlottesville votes to remove confederate statues which were flashpoint of fatal rally

The city council in Charlottesville, Virginia has voted to remove two Confederate statues of General Robert E Lee and General Stonewall Jackson from the city’s parks.

The statues were the flashpoint during the “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017 during which a self-designated neo-Nazi killed counter-protester Heather Heyer as he drove his vehicle into a crowd of people gathered to oppose the rally.

The city first planned to remove the statues after the rally but a number of residents sued the city to block the removal of the statues.

The Supreme Court of the state of Virginia ruled in April that the city is allowed to remove the statues. Advocates argue that statues of Confederate generals pay respect to a history of slavery and racism.

The removal of such statues became a focal point during the racial justice protests last year which were sparked by the murder of George Floyd.

The Washington Post reported that a number of residents asked that the statues be removed during a public hearing before the council’s vote.

Residents now have 30 days to come up with ideas for what to do with the statues, such as moving them to a museum after they have been removed, according to CNN.

The unanimous Monday night vote came as the statue of Robert E Lee in Richmond, the Virginia state capitol, faced a hearing on Tuesday in the Virginia Supreme Court that will decide whether it gets to stay.

Appeals in two lawsuits have reached the state’s highest court after residents attempted to block Democratic Governor Ralph Northam from taking down the statue, but they were rejected by a judge in a lower court.

No current member of the Charlottesville city council was serving when the council held its original vote. The Washington Post reported that 55 residents spoke during Monday’s virtual hearing, and everyone but around half a dozen pushed for the city to remove the statues.

“It’s past time for those things to come down,” community leader Don Gathers said, arguing that the city shouldn’t send the statues to another community.

Several of those who spoke during the public hearing brought up the example of Albemarle County, which removed a statue of a confederate soldier and moved it to a Civil War battlefield in the Shenandoah Valley.

“If my trash ends up in a neighbour’s yard, it’s still trash,” Mr Gathers said. “Those things are like the bat signal for white supremacists.”

Multiple speakers also argued that the council has to act quickly and remove the statues before the August anniversary of the 2017 rally as the statues are still a rallying point for right-wing extremists. Some residents said this makes the statues a public safety hazard.

“The [Lee] statue attracts violent, radical extremists from all over the state and all over the county,” Kat Maybury, a Charlottesville resident, said.

A few speakers defended the statues, saying they were a representation of history and suggested adding “context”.

Katrina Turner forcefully argued against this, saying: “Melt them down. Get rid of them where nobody else has to look at what has stood for so long to keep us in our place.”