![]() Henry says that every time he was asked to remove a statue, the authorities gave him “24-hour security”. “In the end, I made up my mind: if we didn’t do it now – if I didn’t do it – perhaps what we descendants of enslaved people have been chasing for decades would never come.” Later, he learned that “two dozen companies” had rejected the offer. “I had to think about it a lot, above all, because of my family, because of the violence and hatred that sparked the controversy with the statues,” he explains. ![]() In 2020, the contractor received a call from the then governor, Ralph Northam. Photograph: Steve Helber/APĭisassembly and storage was done by Devon Henry. Lauderdale says the museum’s staff worry about vandals, extremist groups and collectors of historical memorabilia.Ĭrews work to remove a towering statue of Confederate Gen Robert E Lee in Richmond in 2021. The bronze figures at one end of the site are wrapped in white plastic material, reminiscent of a shroud, to avoid attracting the attention of drivers who use the nearby highway. There are calls to defund the police and the names of victims who died in police custody.Įach dismantled element has a code so it can be easily reassembled if necessary. The statues are preserved as they were after the attacks that took place during the summer of discontent in 2020, decorated with graffiti invoking the Black Lives Matter movement. The statues were erected as part of a nostalgic rewriting of the past: an interpretation of the American civil war known as the “Lost Cause”, promoted by the descendants of the Confederate forces, who were defeated in 1865. The statues were erected as part of a nostalgic rewriting of the past: an interpretation of the American civil war known as the ‘Lost Cause’. I estimate at least five years, maybe 10,” Lauderdale explains, as she walks among the stone blocks that formed the pedestals of the monuments. “ are too big for our space… would require us to strengthen security against possible attacks by white supremacist groups,” she adds.Īnother certainty is that the rush to tear them down will not influence the speed of the subsequent steps taken by the authorities. Mary C Lauderdale – the Black History Museum’s director of collections – is clear on two things: that the decision will be made “in agreement with the community” (“we’re already surveying the residents”, she notes) and that she doesn’t want the statues in the museum’s headquarters – a former barracks that housed Virginia’s first detachment of Black soldiers. Should they be returned to the streets, or destroyed? Should they be contextualized and put on display? Or perhaps the bronze should be melted down, with the hundreds of tons of marble and granite put to use elsewhere? Graffiti invokes the Black Lives Matter movement.
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