WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2021) US state of Virginia began dismantling the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from the State Capitol in the city of Richmond on Wednesday morning.
Technical workers with special equipment are currently fastening the large statue with construction wires in order to prepare it for removal, according to a live Twitter broadcast from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.
Hundreds of people gathered around the fences in the area to be a witness of the historical process. Northam ordered the statue removed in June 2020, at the height of the protests against racism that erupted after the police murder of George Floyd.
The statue, which was installed in 1890, will be placed in a secure state-owned facility until a further decision, local authorities said earlier.
During the Civil War in the United States, Lee led the forces of the Confederacy - a group of southern states that sided with the preservation of the institution of slavery. Calls for the removal of monuments honoring Confederate figures became widespread after last years' protest movements against systemic racism following Floyd's death.
