Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said during a press briefing on Thursday that he has directed the state authorities to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the state capital of Richmond
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2020) Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said during a press briefing on Thursday that he has directed the state authorities to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the state capital of Richmond.
"I am directing the Department of General Services to remove the statue of Robert Lee as soon as possible," Northam told reporters.
During the US Civil War, Lee led the forces of the Confederacy � a group of Southern states that believed the institution of slavery should be protected. Northam said the statue will go into storage and Richmond residents will determine its future. The governor noted that the statue has been in Richmond for a long time and said that was wrong.
Northam predicted that many residents will be angry and protest the statue's removal, but urged everybody to take an honest look at Virginia' past.
"It is a time to heal," Northam said.
A descendant of General Robert E. Lee, who bears the same name, spoke at his ancestor's statue following the governor's announcement, voicing support for the removal of the statue and expressing solidarity with African American minority's sentiments.
"This feels a little weird for a pastor from North Carolina to be here but it also feels like this [the statue] has always been here and it needs to go away, too. I am tired. But I also realize that I am a white person in America, so being tired is a little different for me than it is for the countless people of color who make up the rest of this nation," he said.
Lee stated that the decision to remove the monument was a "decision of the commonwealth of Virginia," reiterating that black lives matter.
"And trust me, when I say that the Lee family has heard, it because there are members of my family that are shaking in their boots, and I know Robert E. Lee is rolling around in his grave, and I say: let him roll," he concluded, being met with applause by attendees of the event.
The governor's decision comes at a time of riots that grew from protests concerning the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. A video published online shows a white police officer pressing on Floyd's neck for at least eight minutes while he laid handcuffed on his stomach. The initial protests against police brutality and racism soon turned into violence against police and civilians accompanied by acts of vandalism, arson and looting.
