Robert E. Lee's great-great grandson 'fine' with removing Confederate statues
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Confederate statues come down, Confederate memorials covered up and public debates over Confederate symbols rage across the country in the wake of deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. (Aug. 16)
AP
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s great-great grandson condemned last weekend’s deadly attack in Charlottesville, Va. as “sad” and “senseless” and suggesting that it would be “appropriate” to move Confederate statues to museums.
“Eventually, someone is going to have to make a decision, and if that’s the local lawmaker, so be it,” Robert E. Lee V, 54, said, CNN reported. “But we have to be able to have that conversation without all of the hatred and the violence. And if they choose to take those statues down, fine.”
Robert E. Lee V, who works as an athletic director at a Virginia school, according to CNN, said he wouldn’t mind having the Confederate statues placed in museums instead of having them mounted on public parks.
“Maybe it’s appropriate to have them in museums or to put them in some sort of historical context in that regard,” he told CNN.
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Activist Yuleiny Escobar quietly sits on Tuesday during a protest near the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the late former slave trader, Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan member, early Tuesday morning. Escobar and a small group of protestors were told by Memphis police officers to leave the park because it was closed. “All of our events have been nonviolent, peaceful events and it doesn’t matter if only five of us show up, they send twenty plus police officers,” said Hunter Demster of Coalition of Concerned Citizens.
Last October, the Tennessee Historical Commission denied Memphis City Council’s application to relocate Forrest’s statue. A protest held at Health Sciences Park on Saturday continued the call to have the statue removed. The city is preparing to sue Tennessee to remove Memphis’s two Confederate monuments: Forrest, in Health Sciences Park, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, that is located at Mississippi River Park in Downtown, according to City Attorney Bruce McMullen. This news comes a day after Mayor Jim Strickland condemned white supremacists for the violence in Charlottesville.Â
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Baltimore removes Confederate statues in wake of Charlottesville
Related: Confederate monuments prompt protests across USA
His response comes days after the violent protests in Charlottesville revolved around the city’s decision to remove Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s statue. One protester, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and at least 19 others were injured after James Alex Fields, Jr., 20, allegedly slammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.
Fields, who was denied bail on Monday, is charged with one count of second-degree murder, one count of hit and run and several counts of malicious wounding.
A public memorial service for Heyer was held Wednesday where friends, family and other mourners paid their respects to the legal assistant.Â
“Those sorts of acts on Saturday, that’s just not to be tolerated,” great-great grandson Lee told CNN. “We feel strongly that Gen. Lee would never ever stand for that sort of violence.”
“We just want people to know that the Lee family just really wants to send their best to the people in Charlottesville,” he added, CNN reported.
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