Headline Roundup • October 27th, 2023
Robert E. Lee Statue at the Center of 'Unite the Right' Rally Melted Down
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that formerly stood in Charlottesville, Virginia, was melted down on Saturday.
Details: The melting marks an end to a years-long dispute that culminated with the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, where a group of people described by the Washington Post (Lean Left bias) as “white nationalists” and by Fox News (Right bias) as “far-right White supremacist sympathizers” staged a rally protesting the removal of the statue. A counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed after being struck by a car driven by James Alex Fields Jr., whom The Daily Dot (Lean Left bias) described as a “neo-Nazi.” The Washington Post reported that the material from the melted statue will be used to create a “new piece of public artwork to be displayed in Charlottesville.”
Key Quote: Jalane Schmidt, a University of Virginia religious studies professor and co-leader of the Swords Into Plowshares project, told the Washington Post that they are “taking the moral risk associated with melting it down in the hope of creating something new.”
How the Media Covered It: The melting was covered mildly across the spectrum. The Washington Post, which sent a reporter to witness the melting, stated the secrecy was due to “participants’ fears of violence.” The BizPac Review (Right bias) reported the secrecy was due to “fear of backlash over destroying the historic monument.” The BizPac Review stated the melting “prompted much criticism from those who fear the consequences of ignoring and erasing history.” Update 10/29/23 5:56 p.m. ET: Previous version incorrectly said Charlottesville, North Carolina, instead of Charlottesville, Virginia.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post
It was a choice to melt down Robert E. Lee. But it would have been a choice to keep him intact, too.
So the statue of the Confederate general that once stood in Charlottesville — the one that prompted the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 — was now being cut into fragments and dropped into a furnace, dissolving into a sludge of glowing bronze.
Six years ago, groups with ties to the Confederacy had sued to stop the monument from being taken down. Torch-bearing white nationalists descended on...
The Messenger
A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that stirred controversy and was a focal point of a deadly White Supremacist rally in 2017 has been melted down and will be used to make works of art.
The initiative, called "Swords Into Plowshares," is led by Charlottesville’s nonprofit Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center. According to the project's website, they plan on "including local community members as co-creators in the conception and design of the artwork."
The statue is being melted in a local foundry outside of Virginia, according to NPR.
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A bronze statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee has been “secretly” melted down by Charlottesville, VA’s black history museum due to fear of backlash over destroying the historic monument.
The statue of Lee, who was a revered Confederate Army general as well as a slave owner, was taken down in July 2021 at the behest of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam in the wake of protests by Black Lives Matter and the Unite the Right rally in 2017. The city council voted to have it removed and Northam backed them...
