The Robert E. Lee statue was commissioned and donated to the city of Charlottesville by a local white philanthropist named Paul Goodloe McIntire, and it was erected in 1924 in Lee Park. The Lee statue’s unveiling took place during the annual statewide reunion of the United Confederate Veterans and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the event was organized by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The erection of this statue coincided with the erection of similar statues throughout the United States which celebrated the “Lost Cause” narrative of the Civil War. The “Lost Cause” is a historical interpretation that minimizes the horrors of slavery and upholds white supremacy.
In 2016, a young African American activist named Zyahna Bryant started a petition calling for removal of the Confederate statues from Charlottesville parks. This Charlottesville High School student’s powerful voice amplified others' in the community, and helped to galvanize public pressure to remove these symbols of oppression. The Charlottesville City Council responded by appointing the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials, and Public Spaces.
After months of public hearings by the Blue Ribbon Commission, the Charlottesville City Council voted in February 2017 to remove the Lee monument. A group of leading white residents of Charlottesville immediately filed a lawsuit against the City Council in an effort to preserve the statues in the parks. That summer, there was a vitriolic, racist, and violent backlash. White supremacists from both local and national organizations held multiple rallies at the Lee and Jackson statues to protest what they called Charlottesville’s “erasure of white heritage.” In the worst instance, Klansmen, white nationalists, neo-fascists, and right-wing militias converged on Charlottesville on August 11th and 12th, 2017, at the Unite the Right rally. The white supremacists marauded through the streets, assaulting counter-protesters while marching to the Lee statue, chanting “You! Will not! Replace us!” The mob was so violent that the governor declared a state of emergency. The racist rally ended before it officially began -- and Charlottesville racial justice activists declared victory. They jubilantly chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” But that afternoon, a white supremacist deliberately drove his car through a crowd on 4th street in downtown Charlottesville, killing Charlottesville racial justice activist and resident Heather Heyer, and injuring 35 others.
Three years later, racial justice activists formed Monumental Justice Virginia. This statewide organization lobbied the Virginia General Assembly to change a century-old state law which had prohibited the removal of Confederate statues. The campaign was successful, and the law changed on July 1, 2020. Albemarle County and many Virginia cities began removing their Confederate statues. Finally, on July 10, 2021, the City of Charlottesville was able to remove the Lee statue from the park.
