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Virginia
Related: About this forumCharlottesville's Lee statue meets its end, in a 2,250-degree furnace
Last edited Tue Oct 31, 2023, 07:28 PM - Edit history (2)
Washington Post
Charlottesvilles Lee statue meets its end, in a 2,250-degree furnace
Melted down in secret, the divisive Confederate monument will be turned into a new piece of public art
By Teo Armus and
Hadley Green
Oct. 26 at 3:00 p.m.
SOMEWHERE IN THE U.S. SOUTH It was a choice to melt down Robert E. Lee. But it would have been a choice to keep him intact, too.
So the statue of the Confederate general that once stood in Charlottesville the one that prompted the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 was now being cut into fragments and dropped into a furnace, dissolving into a sludge of glowing bronze.
Six years ago, groups with ties to the Confederacy had sued to stop the monument from being taken down. Torch-bearing white nationalists descended on the Virginia college town to protest its removal, and one man drove his car through a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others.
The statues defenders more recently sought to block the city from handing over Lee to the Charlottesvilles Black history museum, which had proposed a plan to repurpose the metal. In a lawsuit, those plaintiffs suggested the monument should remain intact or be turned into Civil War cannons. But on Saturday the museum went ahead with its plan in secret at this small Southern foundry, in a town and state The Washington Post agreed not to name because of participants fears of violence.
-----snip-----
Melted down in secret, the divisive Confederate monument will be turned into a new piece of public art
By Teo Armus and
Hadley Green
Oct. 26 at 3:00 p.m.
SOMEWHERE IN THE U.S. SOUTH It was a choice to melt down Robert E. Lee. But it would have been a choice to keep him intact, too.
So the statue of the Confederate general that once stood in Charlottesville the one that prompted the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 was now being cut into fragments and dropped into a furnace, dissolving into a sludge of glowing bronze.
Six years ago, groups with ties to the Confederacy had sued to stop the monument from being taken down. Torch-bearing white nationalists descended on the Virginia college town to protest its removal, and one man drove his car through a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others.
The statues defenders more recently sought to block the city from handing over Lee to the Charlottesvilles Black history museum, which had proposed a plan to repurpose the metal. In a lawsuit, those plaintiffs suggested the monument should remain intact or be turned into Civil War cannons. But on Saturday the museum went ahead with its plan in secret at this small Southern foundry, in a town and state The Washington Post agreed not to name because of participants fears of violence.
-----snip-----
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https://wapo.st/40sfjWh
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Charlottesville's Lee statue meets its end, in a 2,250-degree furnace (Original Post)
Yonnie3
Oct 2023
OP
IronLionZion
(46,904 posts)1. Good
Here in Arlington they renamed Lee highway to Langston Blvd. And of course his plantation is Arlington National Cemetery. I never saw any point in honoring a person who lost a civil war, and was a pretty bad plantation owner who had a slave revolt and several slaves escaped.
Jilly_in_VA
(10,838 posts)2. Robert E. Lee would approve of this
He was against any monuments to the Confederacy.
Yonnie3
(18,086 posts)3. and a word from our sponsor
Link to tweet
Swords Into Plowshares Charlottesville
@sipcville
📣 Exciting News! We've melted the Lee statue! We went quiet while we dealt w/ legal challenges from Confederate sympathizers. Now we're moving onto the next phase, turning these bronze ingots into new art for our community.
Be part of our mission. Donate: http://sipcville.com/donate
@sipcville
📣 Exciting News! We've melted the Lee statue! We went quiet while we dealt w/ legal challenges from Confederate sympathizers. Now we're moving onto the next phase, turning these bronze ingots into new art for our community.
Be part of our mission. Donate: http://sipcville.com/donate