Onlookers cheer as workmen begin to dismantle At Ready monument. Workers in Charlottesville, Virginia, have started taking down a Confederate statue close to the scene of violent protests in 2017 that left a woman dead. The Washington Post reported that a crowd of about 100 people cheered from behind metal barriers as workmen began dismantling the ‘At Ready’ statue which depicts a Confederate soldier. (…) Charlottesville was the scene of vicious clashes in August 2017 when white supremacists and neo-Nazis holding a Unite the Right rally faced off with counter-protesters. Heather Heyer, one of the counter-protesters, was killed when a white supremacist deliberately crashed his car into a crowd of people. The driver was jailed for life. The At Ready statue is close to another, of Confederate general Robert E Lee, which was the focus of the 2017 protests. Council members in Albermarle County voted to remove both – and one of another southern general, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson – although the future of the other two hangs in the balance while a legal bid to save them is considered.
via independent: Charlottesville takes down Confederate statue at site of fatal 2017 protests
siehe auch: Confederate statue taken down in Charlottesville near the site of violent 2017 rally. Workers remove a plaque at the base of the Confederate soldier statue at the Albemarle County Courthouse in Charlottesville on Saturday. Workers used a crane to remove a Confederate statue from its pedestal Saturday morning and lift an enormous weight from a community still scarred by the racist violence of 2017’s Unite the Right rally. Crowds cheered behind metal barricades as the bronze figure of a Confederate soldier known as “At Ready” was taken down after 111 years outside a county courthouse in this historic university city. Streets that had surged with white supremacists three years ago now rang with music and happy cheers. Families brought small children in blue Union Civil War caps. People wearing Black Lives Matter shirts danced as a student radio station played Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Sly and the Family Stone. “This is a magnificent moment,” said community organizer Don Gathers, 61. “Much of the racial tension, strife and protest we’re seeing across the country emanates from right here in Charlottesville. But now we’re moving the needle in a positive way.”