A statue of Robert E. Lee was removed from the U.S. Capitol early Monday: Office of Governor Northam

By Glynn Wilson –

Back in the summer of 2017, when activists from New Orleans to Charlottesville, Virginia were fighting over the removal of statues of Civil War figures such as Robert E. Lee, I was taking a tour of the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. and noticed something extraordinary: A life-sized statue of Lee in National Statuary Hall.

I wondered at the time why no one else had seemed to notice it and call for its removal, right in the heart of federal power in the nation’s capital. So I broke the story.

A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol: Glynn Wilson

Why is Robert E. Lee’s Statue in the U.S. Capitol Not Yet the Subject of Controversy?

Well on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, I was scanning online for news like I do every day and noticed a trending story on the RSS feed for the NPR website.

Virginia Removes Its Robert E. Lee Statue From U.S. Capitol

I also checked The Washington Post, and they had a story too.

Gen. Robert E. Lee statue removed from U.S. Capitol

As the story goes, for more than 100 years, the two statues chosen by the Virginia Legislature to represent the state in the Capitol were prominent citizens George Washington, and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

With all the controversy over glorifying Civll War figures, I wondered why Lee was still there.

He is no more.

The Architect of the Capitol had workers removing the statue on Monday morning, and the elaborate equipment used to prop up the likeness appeared to people on Facebook to resemble a hanging gallows, which would seem fitting. Many abolitionists had wanted Lee and others such as Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, hanged after the Union won the war. But to foster peace and to re-unite the country, President Abraham Lincoln and Commanding Gen. Ulysses S. Grant let Lee ride away and go back to his Virginia plantation.

Lee is expected to be replaced in the museum space by a statue honoring civil rights activist Barbara Johns, an important figure in fighting school segregation. In 1951, when she was 16, she led a walk-out protesting inferior conditions at Robert Russa Moton High School, an all-Black school in Farmville, Va. Johns’s court case became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down racial segregation in public schools nationwide.

“Before the sit-ins in Greensboro (Ark.), before the Montgomery (Ala.) bus boycott, there was the student strike here in 1951, led by Barbara Johns,” Cameron Patterson, who heads a museum on the grounds of the former school, recently told NPR. “When the students saw what was being provided to white students in this community at Farmville High School, there was certainly a recognition that our community was not meeting the needs of the students here.”

Many statues of controversial historical figures have recently been taken down across the country, starting with a movement in New Orleans, as the country grappled with its long history of racial injustice.

“This is a historic and long-overdue moment for our Commonwealth,” U.S. Reps. Donald McEachin and Jennifer Wexton, both Democrats from Virginia, said in a statement. “The Robert E. Lee statue honors a legacy of division, oppression, and racism — a dark period in the history of our Commonwealth and our country. We are proud to have led the effort in the House of Representatives to replace Lee’s statue.”

A commission established by the Virginia General Assembly recently selected Johns to replace Lee. The state’s General Assembly is expected to vote on the pick during the legislative session in January, 2021.

The Statuary Hall collection is made up of two statues from each state. Virginia contributed the Washington and Lee statues in 1909, 44 years after the end of the Civil War, as Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam noted.

“The Confederacy is a symbol of Virginia’s racist and divisive history, and it is past time we tell our story with images of perseverance, diversity, and inclusion,” Northam said in a statement. “I look forward to seeing a trailblazing young woman of color represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol, where visitors will learn about Barbara Johns’ contributions to America and be empowered to create positive change in their communities just like she did,” Northam said Sunday night in a news release announcing the pending removal of Lee.

The Lee statue will be moved to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, according to the governor’s office.

Some of Virginia’s congressional delegation — including Reps. Jennifer Wexton and A. Donald McEachin, both Democrats — had called for the Lee statue’s removal from the Capitol last year.

“This is a historic and long-overdue moment for our Commonwealth,” Wexton and McEachin said in a joint statement Sunday night. “The Robert E. Lee statue honors a legacy of division, oppression, and racism — a dark period in the history of our Commonwealth and our country. There is no reason his statue should be one of the two representing Virginia in the U.S. Capitol.”

A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol: Glynn Wilson