Robert E. Lee Statue leaves the U.S. Capitol forever.
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END SARS NOW!
HER NAME IS BREONNA TAYLOR!
WEAR A DAMN MASK! SAVE A LIFE!
BLOGGER IS TRASH!
Virginia removed its statue of Robert E. Lee from the U.S. Capitol overnight. In the place of that traitor is a Black shero. A young woman who rose to challenge the status quo. A woman who helped pioneer a cause to bring racial equality to America's schools.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced the move came after a commission established earlier this year unanimously voted in July to take down and replace the statue. The likeness of the disgraceful traitor had represented Virginia in the National Statuary Hall Collection for 111 years alongside a likeness of George Washington, the first American president.
Washington was a slaveholder as well.
In a statement on Monday, Northam said that the Confederacy is “a symbol of Virginia’s racist and divisive history.”
“It’s past time we tell our story with images of perseverance, diversity and inclusion,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Virginia Commission for Historical Statues in the United States Capitol chose to replace that statue with teenage civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns.
In 1951, Johns led students in a walkout in protest of the conditions of her high school.
Johns was attending majority Black Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia.
We still have the same shit in American schools. Suburban schools have better while the city schools continue to have the worst. White flight, is the theory that racists leave the regions they believe are too colorized for areas with like-minded individuals.
Johns led the precursor for the NAACP lawsuit against the school boards that discriminated.
It led to the Brown v. Board of Education decision which integrated schools.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) and a representative from Northam’s office were there for the removal.
“I look forward to seeing a trailblazing young woman of color represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol, where visitors will learn about Barbara Johns’ contribution to America and be empowered to create positive change in their communities just like she did,” Kaine said.
4:02 am. 12/21/20. Crypt of the US Capitol. pic.twitter.com/2ttGecsj5B
— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) December 21, 2020
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the House Speaker called for the immediate removal of statues of Confederate figures, welcomed the change on Monday. She vows to remove symbols of hate and division from the grounds of the Capitol.
“The halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy, and the statues within the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans,” Pelosi said. “There is no room for celebrating the bigotry of the Confederacy in the Capitol or any other place of honor in our country.”
Lee will end up in the Virginia Museum of HIstory and Culture in Richmond.