After Wednesday’s removal of General Robert E. Lee’s statue in Richmond, the city council is setting its sights on the last remaining Confederate statue in town.
“The Richmond City Council will discuss moving the A.P. Hill monument as well as A.P. Hill’s remains, which are inside the monument,” according to WBBT. “On Sept. 13, the city council will take action to relocate the remains and monument to Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper at the request of A.P. Hill’s descendants.”
Hill was a Confederate general who was killed just seven days before Lee and his army surrendered to the Union.
Since Hill’s remains are part of the monument, the city must follow more stringent guidelines in his removal.
“There’s a lot of logistical things that go into that so the resolution states we will be working with the mayor and his team to come up with a plan,” Kristen Larson, a Richmond city councilor said in May.
The removal of the Lee statue Wednesday was celebrated by many Virginians, including Gov. Ralph Northam (D).
“After 133 years, the statue of Robert E. Lee has finally come down—the last Confederate statue on Monument Avenue, and the largest in the South,” Northam said in a Wednesday statement. “The public monuments reflect the story we choose to tell about who we are as a people. It is time to display history as history, and use the public memorials to honor the full and inclusive truth of who we are today and in the future.”
The Virginia Star was present while the statue was being removed, and spoke with residents of the city who gathered to watch its removal.
“It’s powerful for one day to dig in and celebrate, but you have to remember it’s just symbolic and it really doesn’t change anything about our lives. So we have to make real change,” Richmond resident Emily Gaidowski told The Star.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “AP Hill Statue” by VA 2A Preservation.
