WASHINGTON (AP) — A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that represented Virginia in the U.S. Capitol has been removed. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement that workers removed the statue from the National Statuary Hall Collection early Monday. Lee’s statue had stood with George Washington’s statue since 1909 as Virginia’s representatives in the Capitol. Northam had requested its removal and a state commission has recommended replacing Lee’s statue with a likeness of Barbara Johns. She protested poor conditions at her all-Black high school in the town of Farmville in 1951. Her court case became part of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down racial segregation in public schools.
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Jack Mayer/AP
This Monday, Dec. 21, 2020 photo provided by the Office of the Governor of Virginia shows workers removing a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington. The statue that has represented Virginia in the U.S. Capitol for 111 years has been removed after a state commission decided that Lee was not a fitting symbol for the state. (Jack Mayer/Office of Governor of Virginia, File)
Posted at 8:53 AM, Dec 21, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-21 12:37:23-05
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