- Title: Charlottesville removes Confederate statue at center of deadly 2017 protest
- Date: 10th July 2021
- Summary: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA UNITED STATES (JULY 10, 2021) (REUTERS) CLOSE UP OF STATUE OF ROBERT E. LEE WIDE OF STATUE WIDE OF CHARLOTTESVILLE MAYOR NIKUYAH WALKER (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHARLOTTESVILLE MAYOR, NUKUYAH WALKER, SAYING: "Today, the statue comes down and we are one small step closer to a more perfect union." WIDE OF STATE ON PEDESTAL (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHARLOTTESVILLE MAYOR, NIKUYAH WALKER, SAYING: "As this community and our country attempts to reconcile with this hypothesis of white supremacy, I hope that we can move to an authentic healing by embracing truth." CLOSE UP OF CRANE OPERATOR MANEUVERING EQUIPMENT PULL TO A WIDE OF THE STATUE CROWD OBSERVING STATUE OF ROBERT E. LEE BEING LIFTED UP BY CRANE FROM CEMENT PILLAR VARIOUS OF STATUE IN AIR AS CRANE DURING REMOVAL (SOUNDBITE) (English) LARYCIA HAWKINS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PROFESSOR, SAYING: "And to have people not see the reality and the brutality of these statues is overwhelming, so this is a good day. It's not erasing history. It's, it's removing monuments that tell the wrong narrative about history. So I'm very excited for this historical correction as someone who also teaches politics at UVA (The University of Virginia)." PAN TO STATUE BEING REMOVED EMPTY STONE PEDESTAL STATUE SECURED TO A FLATBED TRUCK BEING DRIVEN AWAY FROM LOCATION
- Embargoed: 24th July 2021 14:21
- Keywords: Confederate Race Robert E. Lee Statue White Supremacy
- Location: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA UNTIED STATES
- City: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA UNTIED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Race Relations / Ethnic Issues,Society/Social Issues,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001EL9C0UF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was taken down in the city of 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.
Onlookers cheered as the statue was put on a truck and driven away. City authorities had welcomed viewers from 6 a.m. to the site of the statue in Market Street Park.
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.
After the removal of the Lee statue, the focus will now move to a second park in the city where a statue of Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson is due for removal, according to city spokesperson Brian Wheeler.
The city's planned removal of the Lee statue in 2017 prompted a rally by neo-Nazis and white nationalists that turned deadly when a car driven into a crowd 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 the two Confederate statues, overturning a state Circuit Court decision that had upheld the citizen lawsuit.
The city installed protective fencing and designated no-parking zones around the parks in anticipation of Saturday's removals, according to a Friday statement.
(Production: Greg Savoy, Kia Johnson) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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