Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson announced on Twitter that the city’s landmark statue of a Confederate soldier, known as Appomattox, was removed from Old Town amid the public backlash over the death of George Floyd and police violence against African Americans.
“Alexandria, like all great cities, is constantly changing and evolving,” Wilson said in his message, sharing photographs of the removal. The statue’s pillar will be removed later.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy, owner of the statue, informed Alexandria’s government of their decision on Monday.
Alexandria, like all great cities, is constantly changing and evolving. pic.twitter.com/CZTjlOkpfT
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) June 2, 2020
“While we provided traffic control, the City is not involved in or aware of the destination,” city spokesperson Craig Fifer told Washingtonian.
The statue had been standing at the intersection of South Washington and Prince Streets since 1889 as a tribute to Alexandria’s Confederate soldiers, even after the city stopped flying Confederate flags five years ago.
Speaking to Washingtonian, Wilson explained that the city had been discussing with the United Daughters of the Confederacy about removing the statue for a while and the decision came on Monday.
The Alexandria City Council voted in 2016 to remove the statue, but lawmakers blocked a bill that would pave the way for the removal. However, Gov. Ralph Northam signed a law lifting the ban. The bills that passed the Senate and House would permit the removal and relocation of monuments as of July 1.
A number of Confederate statues have been defaced and targeted by demonstrators around the country during the protests that have been ongoing since last week after the killing of Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis officer.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy’s building was also set on fire during the protests in Richmond, Virginia.
The morning after in Richmond, Virginia – where they burned the Daughters of the Confederacy building and hung a noose around Jefferson Davis’ neck. pic.twitter.com/BdYWGAf6re
— Mallory Noe-Payne (@MalloryNoePayne) May 31, 2020
The organization is now planning to move a Bentonville, Arkansas Confederate statue from Bentonville Square to a private park this summer.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy is an association of Southern women established in 1894 in Nashville, Tennessee, with the purpose of commemorating Confederate States Army soldiers and funding the building of monuments dedicated to them.