{"id":100168,"date":"2020-12-21T15:16:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T09:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/statue-of-confederate-leader-removed-from-us-capitol\/"},"modified":"2020-12-22T02:52:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T20:52:41","slug":"statue-of-confederate-leader-removed-from-us-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/statue-of-confederate-leader-removed-from-us-capitol\/","title":{"rendered":"Statue of Confederate Leader Removed from US Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that represented the U.S. state of Virginia in the U.S. Capitol was removed early Monday.<\/p>\n
In a statement Sunday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said he had requested the removal over the summer after a commission decided that a man who fought to uphold slavery was not a fitting symbol for a diverse and modern state. The statue was removed in the pre-dawn hours on Monday.<\/p>\n
Since 1909, Lee\u2019s statue had stood with President George Washington\u2019s as Virginia\u2019s representatives in the National Statuary Hall, where every U.S. state is represented by two statues. The state commission recommended replacing the Lee statue with a likeness of Virginia native Barbara Johns.<\/p>\n
As a 16-year-old in 1951, Johns protested poor conditions at her all-Black high school in the town of Farmville. Her court case became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down racial segregation in public schools nationwide.<\/p>\n
In his statement, Northam said he \u201clooks forward to seeing a trailblazing young woman of color represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n