RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Crews are set to remove one of the country’s largest remaining monuments to the Confederacy, a towering statute of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia. The bronze likeness of Lee on a horse will be hoisted off its 40-foot pedestal Wednesday, 131 years after it was erected in the former capital of the Confederacy. While many saw the statue as an offensive tribute to the South’s slave-holding past, public officials had long resisted its removal. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam announced plans to take down the statue last year after George Floyd’s killing sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.
