Robert E. Lee statue removed in Charlottesville, Virginia

A statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was eliminated Saturday, practically 4 years after white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups stormed the Virginia college town to guard it.

Crews have been additionally anticipated to take down a statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson.

“Taking down this statue is one small step nearer to the aim of serving to Charlottesville, Virginia, and America, grapple with the sin of being prepared to destroy Black folks for financial acquire,” Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker instructed reporters and observers in a speech close to the monument.

The statues will probably be saved till the Metropolis Council decides to promote, destroy or in any other case get rid of them. Underneath state regulation, town was required to solicit events keen on taking the statues throughout a suggestion interval that ended Thursday. It obtained 10 responses to its solicitation.

White supremacist and neo-Nazi teams descended on Charlottesville in August 2017 for a violent “Unite the Proper” rally to protest efforts to take away monuments to these notorious nineteenth century army leaders.

The protests turned lethal after James Alex Fields Jr. killed 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist Heather Heyer.

Fields, an Ohio man recognized for being fascinated with Nazism and idolizing Adolf Hitler, drove his automobile into a bunch of counter protesters. He is now serving a life sentence.

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