Virginia removes Confederate Statue from US Capitol

December 21, 2020 11:48 PM

In July, an eight-member Commission of the State of Virginia voted unanimously to remove their statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the US Capitol building. It was removed this Sunday and will be replaced by a statue memorializing civil rights activist Barbara Johns. In 1951, Johns was 16 when she “led a walkout at her high school to protest poor and unequal school conditions. The moment is one that many historians believe helped launch the desegregation movement in the US.”

In an official statement (with photos showing the removal of the Lee statue), Virginia Governor Northam said it was an “important step forward”. Delegate Jeion Ward, who sponsored legislation creating the Commission, said “As of this morning, Virginia will no longer honor the Confederacy in the halls of the United States Capitol.”

posted by darkstar (25 comments total)

Yeee-haw!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:57 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Good. Monuments to treason, sedition, and oathbreaking have no place in the Capital.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:57 PM on December 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

I've long thought that the proper disposition of these confederate monuments was to melt them down and cast new toilets.
posted by mikelieman at 12:22 AM on December 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

How many times do racist factions have to lose before they learn?
posted by ichomp at 1:33 AM on December 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Something good in 2020.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:34 AM on December 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

thank you very much for informing
posted by bringmag at 3:15 AM on December 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

More detail in the NYT:

She gathered the student body in the auditorium by forging a note to teachers, ostensibly from the principal, instructing them to bring the students there, Ms. Johns’s younger sister, Joan Johns Cobbs, told The New York Times in 2019.

When the students arrived in the auditorium, “there was no principal there, and instead it was my sister on the stage,” Ms. Cobbs said...

The NAACP took on the case, shifting its focus to integration rather than a new building. The organization consolidated the case with four others into what would become the landmark school segregation case Brown v. Board of Education.
posted by mediareport at 3:54 AM on December 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

Monuments to treason, sedition, and oathbreaking have no place in the Capital.

Yeah! That's the Senate's job!
posted by 1adam12 at 4:35 AM on December 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Really wish the millwrights had taken the opportunity to rig a noose around the neck of the statue to move it...
posted by notsnot at 4:46 AM on December 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Good.
posted by zardoz at 5:33 AM on December 22, 2020

Good thing!
posted by mermayd at 6:01 AM on December 22, 2020

And hats off to Barbara Rose Johns. Never heard of her, but b'god I like her style.
posted by BobTheScientist at 6:11 AM on December 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

Now they just need to remove the Confederate wannabes. Might take a bit longer, though.
posted by tommasz at 6:40 AM on December 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

I have to admit I enjoyed seeing Robert E. Lee in chains.
posted by srboisvert at 7:09 AM on December 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

So Trumpists/nationalists/neo-Confederates have evidently been posting shaheed-type videos in praise of those who have killed protesters and unsurprisingly YouTube is dealing with it poorly. Hopefully we can prevent statues and monuments being erected for them in the first place.
posted by XMLicious at 7:26 AM on December 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

Replacing traitors with heroes! 👏🏼
posted by adamsc at 8:12 AM on December 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

How many times do racist factions have to lose before they learn? = all the times + the next time.
posted by th3ph17 at 10:50 AM on December 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

"During the American Civil War, the grounds of the mansion were selected as the site of Arlington National Cemetery, in part to ensure that Lee would never again be able to return to his home."
posted by clavdivs at 12:04 PM on December 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

From clavdivs’ fascinating link:

“The estate needed much repair and reorganization, and Robert E. Lee, as executor of Custis's will, took a three-year leave of absence from the Army to begin the necessary agricultural and financial improvements. The will also required the executor to free the slaves on the estate within five years of Custis's death. Robert E. Lee freed the slaves in December 1862, two months past the 5 year requirement.”
posted by darkstar at 12:18 PM on December 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Good news! And as a bonus, “Barbara Rose Johns” has the same number of syllables as “Robert E. Lee” so it won’t be difficult for Neil Diamond to update his song.
posted by ejs at 9:45 PM on December 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

So as expected, White Guy Twitter has been having a meltdown over this, and it is not to my credit that I had to restrain myself from responding to one rant about "Betrayal of the greatest American general" with "Triggered much, snowflake?”

I had to tell myself that's not the way, that's not helping, that's not my higher self. But damn I thought it
posted by happyroach at 10:16 AM on December 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Robert E. Lee was a vain narcissist. He was a poser as the straight-backed conqueror even after he lost his war. But if he wasn't so darn arrogant, he could've maybe drawn out the Union to a detente. He was proud in his personal branding, but in the end just a looser.

(In comparison to U.S. Grant, a shy introverted loner who liked binge drinking. But got shit done.)
posted by ovvl at 6:56 PM on December 23, 2020

Good news! And as a bonus, “Barbara Rose Johns” has the same number of syllables as “Robert E. Lee” so it won’t be difficult for Neil Diamond to update his song.

Not to mention the old minstrel standard.

(In comparison to U.S. Grant, a shy introverted loner who liked binge drinking. But got shit done.)

Plus he was a stone cold fox.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:50 PM on December 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Both Grant and Lee rose to the occasion at Appomattox. Grant was magnanimous. Lee could have dispersed his army and had them fight on as guerrillas. But he was beat and he acknowledged it. (Unlike the current resident.) They both set an example for other American and Confederate commanders to follow. I'm all in on removing Lee's statue from the Capitol and all other public or government sites.

Grant:

I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.

posted by kirkaracha at 10:44 PM on December 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

"I, Robert E. Lee, appointed a second lieutenant in the Army of the United States, do solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles for the government of the Armies of the United States."

Grant should have hanged Lee for the white supremacist insurrectionist and traitor to his sacred oath of true allegiance to the United States of America that he was.

America has always been worse off for coddling white supremacists. From the 3/5th compromise and the electoral college, through Lincoln's failure to execute the insurrectionists and his pick of Johnson as VP allowed Johnson to sabotage Reconstruction through 'both side"erism today.
posted by mikelieman at 12:50 AM on December 25, 2020 [7 favorites]