- Title: Charlottesville removes Confederate statues at center of deadly 2017 protest
- Date: 10th July 2021
- Summary: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 10, 2021) (REUTERS) VIEW OF STATUE OF CONFEDERATE GENERAL THOMAS STONEWALL JACKSON TALL CRANE ABOVE TREES POSITIONED TO LIFT STATUE PAN TO PEOPLE GATHERED BELOW WORKMEN SECURING STATUE TO BE LIFTED FROM BASE VIEW OF ARTWORK SURROUNDING BASE OF STATUE STONEWALL JACKSON STATUE SECURED FOR TRANSPORT PEOPLE GATHERED TO OBSERVE CROWD CHEERING AS STATUE IS LIFTED FROM BASE STATUE OF STONEWALL JACKSON BEING LIFTED THROUGH THE AIR STATUE BEING LOWERED TO FLATBED TRUCK (SOUNDBITE) (English) DON GATHERS - OBSERVER, SAYING: "Oh, it's it's it's surreal actually. It's just a wash with the full gamut of emotion. Just happiness and elation, but sadness as to what it's taken to get us to this point: tears of joy, tears of frustration as well." VIEW OF TRUCK PREPARING TO DEPART AS PEOPLE OBSERVE SIDE VIEW OF STATUE ON TRUCK AS WORKMEN SECURE FOR TRANSPORT STATUE MOVING ALONG STREET ON REAR OF TRUCK AS SPECTATORS CHEER PEOPLE STANDING ON A WALL AND ALONG SIDEWALK USING CELL PHONES TO DOCUMENT EVENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHELLE COLBERT - OBSERVER, SAYING: "And realize that these symbols are bad for the community and today we've removed that hate, and now healing can happen post the events that happen in 2017 here, so it's just joyous. It's a great occasion and I'm very happy to have been a witness to it." VARIOUS OF TRUCK MOVING ALONG STREET WITH JACKSON STATUE
- Embargoed: 24th July 2021 17:35
- Keywords: Stonewall Jackson confederate statue
- Location: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES
- City: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Race Relations / Ethnic Issues,Society/Social Issues,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001EL9C7YF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A statue of Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was taken down in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday (July 10), nearly four years after white supremacist protests over plans to remove it led to clashes in which a woman was run down by a car and killed.
Shortly before after the removal of the Jackson statue, a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was also removed from its base in another city park. Onlookers who had gathered hours earlier cheered as the statues were loaded onto trucks and driven away.
Statues honoring leaders of the pro-slavery Confederate side in the American Civil War have become a focus of protests against racism in recent years.
The college town's planned removal of the Lee statue in 2017 prompted a rally by white supremacists that turned deadly when a car driven into a crowd by a self-described neo-Nazi killed a counter-protester, 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Weeks later the Charlottesville city council unanimously ordered the Jackson statue to be removed.
Citizens including the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued Charlottesville over the removal plans. In April, Virginia's highest court ruled the city could remove both Confederate statues, overturning a state Circuit Court decision that had upheld the citizen lawsuit.
Charlottesville will keep the statues in storage until it makes a final decision about what to do with them, officials said in a statement on Friday. The city installed protective fencing and designated no-parking zones around the parks in anticipation of Saturday's removals, the statement said.
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