The us-regions judiciary unanimously ruled Thursday that an iconic archaeologyof Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee could be removed from Monument Avenue in Richmond, the state’s capital.
A handful of state residents challenged Gov. Ralph Northam in two lawsuits last year after he said he planned to have the statue taken down just days after the murder of george-floyd” target=”_blank”>George Floyd<
“Those restrictive covenants are unenforceable as contrary to public policy and for being unreasonable because their effect is to compel … the Commonwealth to express, in perpetuity, a message with which it now disagrees,” the justices wrote.
The justices also relied on testimony from historians who said the statue was erected to honor pre-Civil War slavery in the South.
The moon illuminates the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue Friday June. 5, 2020, in Richmond, Virginia. (Associated Press)
Last year, the statue became a flashpoint for anti-racism us-protests” target=”_blank”>protesters <
The Lee statue was created in France and was the first of five Confederate monuments erected on the avenue at a time when the Civil War and Reconstruction were long over, but Jim Crow racial segregation laws were on the rise.
A dispute over a Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 led to a day of protests and violence in the city in which one woman was killed by a vehicle attack and two state troopers died in a helicopter accident.
Charlottesville is about 72 miles northwest of Richmond.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
