A monument depicting James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, the then commander of the Cavalry Corps of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, has been taken down by Work crews in Richmond on Tuesday 7th June 2020.
This is in a move by the city to get rid of symbols depicting oppression in response to increasing protests against racism and police brutality following the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black American man, in the hands of Minneapolis officers.
The equestrian statue was removed with harnesses strapped around it by the crew, lifted from its granite base with a crane and finally trucked away. Crowds cheered as the statue was being removed amidst chants of “Black Lives Matter” slogan.
The statue installed in 1907 on Richmond’s Monument Avenue would be the third major statue to be removed in less than a week in the city. The statue is 15 feet high resting on a 7-foot pedestal.
It depicts Gen. James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart who died in 1864 after an encounter with a Union soldier in which he was fatally wounded.
There are several inscriptions at the base of the monument paying tribute to Stuart. One of the inscriptions reads, “He gave his life for his country and saved his city from capture.”
The monument is one of many targeted by protesters in Richmond and attempts had been made by the protesters to pull it down, an action that prompted police to declare unlawful assembly on 21st June.
Meanwhile an order was given on July 1st by Mayor Levar Stoney that all the Confederate statues belonging to the states be removed.
Among the statues earlier removed are Stonewall Jackson’s, the first to be removed on July 1st, and Matthew Fontaine Maury’s, a navy officer, removed on Thursday, July 2 from Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.
The Mayor said the statues would be kept in safe places until the public decide on what actions need to be taken regarding the monument
Gov. Ralph Northam also last month ordered removal of another huge statue depicting Gen. Robert E. Lee, but it has been stopped temporarily following an injunction issued in a lawsuit.
