Crowd Cheers As Robert E. Lee Statue Is Removed From Richmond

After 131 years of being up on a pedestal in downtown #RichmondVA, a 21-foot statue of Confederate Gen. #RobertELee has been removed. It was one of the largest #Confederate monuments in the U.S.

It's still unknown what will be the statue's final disposition.

[Anedoje]

Sometimes i actually wonder if Americans read

[unknownwords]

All these historical statues that they taken down should be at least in a historical museum. No matter what kind of history it has or had it’s still part of American history which is what we are. What are our children going to learn in school in HISTORY class?! The point of having history class is learning about how America was founded and what and who made America what is it today.

[SouthernGentleman]

The result of ignorance.

Rip Robert E Lee. Us veteran of Mexican American war, anti slavery, and teacher at a university

[fowchiiiliedpuppiesdied]

How disgusting and ignorant. He was completely opposed to slavery.

[KeiPyn]

Sad to see. If anything it will further divide our country. Lee was a great American and the South looked to honor it's citizens who stood to fight against Union tyranny.
Many white, black, multinational and Native Americans fought for the South. Deo Vindice.

[colinecollard]

I visited St. Petersburg, Russia on a weekend trip with my father back in 1994. As the tour bus drove past a small museum the tour guide said:"If you look outside you'll see the only statue left of Lenin in the city. It's standing on the lawn in the right corner. All the other statues of Lenin have been torn down and taken to the scrapper." So Russia tore every statue of Lenin by 1994 already (the Soviet Union fell in 1991) and distanced itself from its past but the U.S. still has statues of a man who was an enemy of the Union, who lost the Civil War and who is generally revered by people wanting a return to the "good 'ol days" ?

Something isn't quite right here...

Like I said: That small statue of Lenin was outside some museum where he has "historical" value as a symbol of the past. These Robert E. Lee statues can be put inside museums or the houses of private collectors. But to have them in public??

[valmid]

*This move is a huge INSULT to the memory of the statue’s creators:*
-Paul Goodloe McIntire (McIntire was a recipient of the French Legion of Honor in 1929 for his founding of a children's tuberculosis hospital in France for refugees from the German-occupied north)
-Henry Shrady (creator of Grant’s memorial)

[yahspoetyahu-thepoeticword]

You can remove any Confederate statute and it still WILL NOT undue systematic racism in this

[Plissken]

Next they will be outlawing soccer balls...because a perpetual victim is always offended by the black spots.

[OceanIgs]

I think there should be a museum and write the history behind every statue. Otherwise, future generations aren't gonna know about this and will repeat it.

[Kain]

Lee believed in trial by combat and wrote against glorifying their lost cause.

[EternityItsYourChoice]

Winston Churchill wrote on General Robert E. Lee, "His noble presence and gentle, kindly manner were sustained by religious faith and exalted character."

[AlajSaint]

Another one bites the dust! This is, great now if Puerto Rico can remove the columbus statue in San Juan and every other statue or symbol of racism in all of the americas and the carribean, that would be awesome. 😂😆👏🏾✊🏾🙏🏾

[markbeckham]

Meanwhile the GOP has people distracted with these silly statues and while people are watching this your right to vote is being cut harder than that statue!

[tubefan]

Hopefully it will be placed in a military museum.

[buckyoung]

Only fools cheer when history is erased.

[TruthOverFear]

This proves that history will come back and haunt you. Robert E. Lee might need some water and SPF 1000

[stephss]

We don't need statues that commemorate fear and pain, in our public spaces. Melt it down, and make something beautiful from it.

[SouthernGentleman]

“While we see the Course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who Sees the end” - Robert E Lee 1856

“I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this, as regards Virginia especially, that I would cheerfully have lost all I have lost by the war, and have suffered all I have suffered, to have this object attained.” - Robert E Lee 1865

And this is bad?!

[AvangionQ]

Robert E. Lee himself said: "I think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife & to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered."

Statues of racists and traitors should all be gone.