Virginia City Council Decides To Sell Its Gen. Lee Statue

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By Rob Shimshock

A Virginia city council has decided to sell its statue of General Robert E. Lee, following its decision earlier this year to remove the statue from the park named after it.

The city council of Charlottesville, Virginia voted 3-2 on Monday evening to sell its Gen. Lee statue and transfer responsibility for moving it to whomever buys it, according to The Daily Progress.

But before the council can sell the statue, it will first need to fight off a lawsuit filed by the Monument Fund, Inc. and the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc.

The council is also in the process of renaming Lee Park and Jackson Park, another park named after a statue of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

“That emblem of white supremacy should have never been put up in the center of the city, and it could not be removed quickly enough,” said community member Ben Doherty referring to the Lee statue, as reported by The Daily Progress. “I encourage City Council to pursue the options that most efficiently lead to its removal.”

Doherty is an organizer for the Charlottesville chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, which is “a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice,” according to the group’s Facebook page.

“If we truly want to be the capital of the resistance, then let’s show some leadership on this difficult issue,” continued Doherty. “Respect the 3-2 vote of the City Council and work with your colleagues to move forward as quickly as possible in removing this racist statue from our midst.”

“The resistance” likely refers to a self-styled network of anti-Trump, anti-conservative activists.

The removal of Charlottesville’s General Lee statue could cost $330,000, as reported by Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Public opinion does not seem to align with the decision made by the council. Featured below are the results of a poll administered by NBC29:

(Photo: Courtesy of NBC29/Nora Neus)

8,158 voters (87.3 percent) did not want the Charlottesville City Council to remove the Gen. Lee statue or change the name of its corresponding Lee Park. 490 voters (5 percent) thought the council should rename the park and remove the statue, 361 voters (3.9 percent) believed the city should keep the statue but rename the park, and 72 voters (0.8 percent) believed the council should remove the statue but keep the park name.

In order to view the results of the poll, viewers must first give a response. This is an online poll and is not scientific. Readers worldwide can vote in the poll, so its results are more indicative of popular opinion worldwide than in Charlottesville exclusively.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to the Charlottesville City Council for comment, but received none in time for publication.