Crews took down a statue of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart on Tuesday, making the 15-foot tall Confederate monument the third to come down in Richmond, Virginia, since Democratic Mayor Levar Stoney ordered them removed last week.
According to The Associated Press, crowds cheering “Black Lives Matter!” surrounded the statue as a crane lifted it from its 7-foot pedestal, which had been heavily graffitied during recent protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Photos and videos tweeted from the event depicted others waving a rainbow flag and climbing a lamp post.
#BREAKING : Crews have removed the J.E.B Stuart monument. @NBC12 pic.twitter.com/AKqmeOlWu2
— Terrance Dixon (@terrancedixontv) July 7, 2020
What a morning to see JEB Stuart come down in Richmond #rva pic.twitter.com/nRyz16PL95
— sarah (@say_rahh__) July 7, 2020
And it’s off. The JEB Stuart statue has been removed from its 113 year old location. @CBS6 pic.twitter.com/KSgxRZC4i0
— Gabrielle Harmon (@_GabbyHarmonTV) July 7, 2020
Confederate General JEB Stuart has officially been taken down!#RVA #RVAprotests pic.twitter.com/owsN5UYj82
— domico phillips (@domicophillips) July 7, 2020
James Ewell Brown Stuart was born in 1833 in Patrick County, Virginia, and served in the U.S. Army until Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861. He later became a cavalry commander in the Army of Northern Virginia until he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864.
The equestrian statue of Stuart was erected in 1907, the second monument installed on Richmond’s Monument Avenue after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1890. The tree-lined thoroughfare also once depicted Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Confederate Naval commander Matthew Fontaine Murray until Mayor Levar Stoney ordered city-owned Confederate monuments removed July 1.
Protesters tore down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis along the Avenue in June. The Lee statue remains on a state-owned portion of the mall after a judge temporarily blocked Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam from removing it last month.
On Monday, Stoney tweeted out a link through which people could donate to The Fund to Move the Monuments, which is raising money to remove Confederate statues from cash-strapped Richmond. “Last week we started removing relics of a shameful past, for a brighter future,” Stoney tweeted. “Help us finish the job.”
Last week we started removing relics of a shameful past, for a brighter future. Help us finish the job. https://t.co/dxOv3kBxgD pic.twitter.com/wpnVj86ryD
— Levar M. Stoney (@LevarStoney) July 6, 2020
“The time has arrived to move Richmond’s Confederate monuments,” the fund’s website reads in part. “Decades of growing public sentiment and political [sic] will have finally combined to bring us to this historic moment. That moment is now, and you can help make it happen.”
Explaining how such efforts will cost more than $2 million and that the effects of COVID-19 have left Richmond’s budgets strained, the site continues, “Your donation will be dedicated to removing the Confederate statues from their current locations. With your support, we can raise the funds needed to finally remove these highly visible vestiges of systemic racism and oppression from our thoroughfares.”
