Another statue in Richmond, Virginia, has been torn down by demonstrators amid protests regarding race relations in America.
This time, demonstrators pulled down a statue of Jefferson Davis – the president of the Confederacy – which stood in Richmond’s Monument Avenue since 1907, NPR reported. Police stood by as the statue was removed by a tow tuck. The giant column behind Davis, which includes his name and title, still remains.
This was the third statue Richmond protesters have torn down in the past week. As The Daily Wire previously reported, protesters toppled the statue of Christopher Columbus that sat in Byrd Park. That statue was torn from its foundation, spray painted, set on fire, and finally dropped in the nearby lake.
Over the weekend, protesters pulled down a statue of Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham, which had stood in Richmond’s Monroe Park since 1891. After the statue was torn down, one protester reportedly urinated on it before running away. Another statue in Monroe Park is still standing.
Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) announced that he had directed Virginia’s Department of Government Services to remove an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee positioned in the middle of Richmond on land owned by the state.
“Today, we’re here to be honest about our past and talk about our future,” Northam tweeted Thursday. “I strongly believe that we have to confront where we’ve been in order to shape where we’re going.”
“Today, Virginia is home to more Confederate commemorations than any other state. That’s true because generations ago, Virginia made the decision not to celebrate unity, but to honor the cause of division,” Northam tweeted. “The statue of Robert E. Lee is the most prominent. Lee himself didn’t want a monument, but Virginia built one any way. Instead of choosing to heal the wounds of the American civil war, they chose to keep them on display.”
“But voting matters, elections matter, and laws can be changed,” Northam tweeted. “And this year, we changed them. This year, I proposed legislation to let cities and counties decide what to do with monuments in their communities—take them down, move them somewhere else, or add additional context.”
On Monday, Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley B. Cavedo issued a 10-day injunction that would keep the statue in place. Cavedo cited a 130-year-old deed filed in Henrico County that ensured the statue would remain in place and that the commonwealth “faithfully guard it and affectionately protect it.”
Northam’s office vowed it would remove the statue anyway.
“Governor Northam remains committed to removing this divisive symbol from Virginia’s capital city, and we’re confident in his authority to do so,” Northam press secretary Alena Yarmosky said in a statement Monday night.
Richmond Mayer Levar Stoney has said he would remove the remaining Confederate statutes on Monument Avenue that are on city property.
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