RICHMOND, Va. -- The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that stood at the U.S. Capitol for more than 100 years arrived Tuesday at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond.
"Earlier this year, Virginia’s Commission for Historical Statues in the United States Capitol voted unanimously to remove and replace the statue. The Commission also voted unanimously that the statue should be added to the artifact collection of the VMHC where is can be preserved as a reminder of the history of its creation and placement in the Capitol in 1909 and also for its removal in 2020," the museum posted on social medial. "Now that it has arrived, the Lee statue will be placed in secure collections storage during the VMHC’s ongoing extensive renovation."
That same state commission has recommended replacing Lee’s statue with a likeness of Barbara Johns.
She protested poor conditions at her all-Black high school in the town of Farmville in 1951.
Her court case became part of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down racial segregation in public schools.
