Richmond Removes Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart Statue

Crews attach straps to the statue Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart on Monument Avenue Tue
Steve Helber/AP Photo

Work crews ventured to the heart of Richmond, Virginia, where they removed the statue of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart on Tuesday, one week after the city’s mayor ordered all Confederate monuments on city property be removed.

According to the Associated Press, the bronze statue, which was installed in 1907 on Richmond’s Monument Avenue, was separated from its granite base on Tuesday morning and trucked away.

The Associated Press also reported that chants of “Black Lives Matter” could be heard during and after the removal, with one person saying, “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye,” when the statue was taken away.

The statue of Stuart, which stood 15 feet tall on a seven-foot pedestal, showed Stuart in full uniform with a sword by his side.

Last week, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D) ordered the removal of Confederate statues that were located on city property, saying it was time to “turn this page.”

“As the capital city of Virginia, we have needed to turn this page for decades. And today we will,” Stoney said last week. “Since the end of Richmond’s official tenure as the capital of the Confederacy 155 years ago, we have been burdened with that legacy. … These statues, although symbolic, have cast a shadow on the dreams of our children of color. By removing them, we can begin to heal and focus our attention on our future.”

Last week, the statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury, a Confederate naval officer, was removed by a crane and taken away by a truck. A statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson was also removed from Monument Avenue last week.

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