The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, will be melted down and given to an African-American heritage center to be transformed into new art.
The Charlottesville City Council announced the plan after considering six different proposals for what to do with the statue.
“Our hope with ‘Swords into Plowshares’ is to create something that transforms what was once toxic in our public space into something beautiful that can be more reflective of our entire community’s social values,” said the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center’s executive director, Andrea Douglas.
“We’re giving people opportunities to engage with our own narratives and our own histories,” Douglas continued. “This project offers a road map for other communities to do the same.”
The heritage center has already raised $590,000 for the project, which will also include a “community engagement process” to inform the public about the art it intends to create.
The city council removed the Lee statue and another of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in July, claiming both men represented controversial parts of American history that shouldn’t be “glorified.”
“In 2020, we can no longer honor a system that was based on the buying and selling of enslaved people,” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said at the time.
This week, Northam went one step further and announced his administration would also remove the enormous pedestal on which the Lee statue stood. The announcement was a reversal from Northam’s initial decision to let the pedestal stay.
“It was important to us that we do it now and before we leave office,” said Alena Yarmosky, Northam’s spokeswoman.
The pedestal has been covered in graffiti, some of it profane and much of it denouncing the police. It has drawn some acclaim as a work of protest art, and some community members have advocated that it should remain.
