Robert E. Lee Monument, Charlottesville

Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally

Dublin Core

Title

Robert E. Lee Monument, Charlottesville

Description

This statue of Robert E. Lee was erected in 1924 in Charlottesville, Virginia in Market Street Park, which was formerly called Lee Park. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places after being listed in 1997. It is one of four statues created on commission from Paul Goodloe McIntire as a gift to the city of Charlottesville, and it was sculpted by Henry Shrady who was a member of the National Sculpture Society. This statue has also received increased criticism in the last several years through the threat of removal, as well as being the site of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. The rally was a gathering of white supremacists, KKK members, and neo-Nazi groups protesting the removal of Confederate statues. The rally turned violent when counter-protestors and protestors clashed, leading to 33 injuries and 1 death as a protestor drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors. This came after a 2016 proposal to remove the statue in response to the racially motivated 2015 Charleston church shooting.

However, the Virginia government canceled the removal of this statue in 2018, and attempts to cover or remove it were blocked. Despite the blocked attempts to remove the statue, there have been several acts of vandalism against both this and the Stonewall Jackson statue in Charlottesville, both with a chisel to damage the statue and with painted messages against President Trump in 2019. The statue was taken down on June 10th, 2021, being put into storage as the city's property. On October 22nd, 2021, The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center suggested that the statue should be melted down and turned into other works of art. On September 26, 2023, the lawsuit over the removal of the statue ended and the city decided to go with the suggestion to melt the statue down.

As of October 26, 2023, the Lee statue was melted down in a private ceremony closed to the public over fear of backlash against the activists and foundry workers responsible for melting the statue. Moving forward the statue's bronze is planned to be turned into a new public art project for the city to display.

Creator

Henry Shrady- Sculptor

Source

“104-0264 Robert Edward Lee Sculpture.” Virginia Department of Historic Resources website. Accessed December 13, 2020. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/104-0264/

Bidgood, Jess, Matthew Bloch, Morrigan McCarthy, Liam Stack, and Wilson Andrews. “From 2017: Confederate Monuments are Coming Down Across the United States. Here’s A List.” The New York Times, August 28, 2017. Accessed December 13, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/16/us/confederate-monuments-removed.html

Fortin, Jacey. “The Statue at the Center of Charlottesville’s Storm.” The New York Times, August 13, 2017. Accessed December 13, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/charlottesville-rally-protest-statue.html

Laughland, Oliver. “White Nationalist Richard Spencer at Rally Over Confederate Statue’s Removal.” The Guardian, May 14, 2017. Accessed December 13, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/14/richard-spencer-white-nationalist-virginia-confederate-statue

Stack, Liam. “Charlottesville Confederate Statues Are Protected by State Law, Judge Rules.” The New York Times, May 1, 2019. Accessed December 13, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/charlottesville-confederate-statues.html

“Charlottesville Takes down Robert E Lee Statue That Sparked Rally.” BBC News, BBC, 10 July 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57788220.

Sullivan, Becky. “A Black Museum Asks to Melt Charlottesville's Robert E. Lee Statue to Create New Art.” NPR, NPR, 22 Oct. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1048380729/black-museum-melt-charlottesville-robert-e-lee-statue.

Neus, Nora. “Robert E Lee statue that sparked Charlottesville riot is melted down: ‘Like his face was crying.’” The Guardian, October 26, 2023. Accessed November 12, 2023.
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/26/charlottesville-robert-e-lee-melted-confederate-statue

Date

Erected: 1924
Removed: June 10, 2021

Contributor

Matthew Mulcaire, Joey Baum, Michael Westfall

Language

English

Type

Sculpture

Identifier

Hist 402A Fall 2020-2023

Coverage

Charlottesville, Virginia

Geolocation