An Emancipation Statue Debuts In Virginia Two Weeks After Robert E. Lee Was Removed

[PunkinPi]

Two weeks after the 6-story-tall statue of Robert E. Lee was removed in Richmond, Va., the former confederate capital city will become home a new statue, this one commemorating the abolition of slavery.

The Emancipation and Freedom Monument — designed by Thomas Jay Warren, a sculptor based in Oregon — consists of two 12-foot bronze statues of a man and a woman holding an infant who have been newly freed from slavery. The statue's pedestal includes the names, images and stories of 10 Virginians who contributed to the struggle for freedom before and after emancipation, including Dred Scott, whose lawsuit led to the Supreme Court decision that persons of African descent were not U.S. citizens; Nat Turner, who led a successful slave rebellion; and educator Lucy Simms.

...

The monument was originally supposed to be revealed in 2019 as part of the 400th anniversary of 1619, when the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. The pandemic delayed the project.

But the fact that the monument will now make its debut after some of the largest Confederate statues in Richmond of Lee and other generals are gone is a moment of "poetic justice," McClellan says.

Source, more - https://www.npr.org/2021/09/22/1039333919/new-emancipation-statue-richmond-virginia-monument

You'll be able to watch the unveiling and dedication today at 10:00 a.m. on Brown's Island in Richmond, here:

[Yonnie3]

1. Thanks for the link

I'm watching. It's rather wet there, but they're carrying on.