city of CharlottesvilleVirginia will demolish two Confederate statues on Saturday morning, almost four years after white supremacists protested against a plan to remove one of the statues, which resulted in a woman being knocked down by a car and killed.
City government spokesperson Brian Wheeler said that the city government will welcome spectators to Market Street Park in Charlottesville at 6 a.m. local time on Saturday morning, where the city plans to demolish Confederate General Robert · Statue of Li.
Wheeler said that after the removal of the Lee statue is complete, the focus will shift to the city’s second park, where the statue of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson will be demolished.
The city plans to demolish the Li statue in 2017, which triggered a rally of neo-Nazis and white nationalists. When a car rushed into the crowd, a 32-year-old counter-protester died and the rally became lethal.
A few weeks later, the Charlottesville City Council unanimously ordered the removal of the Jackson statue from another park in the downtown historic district.
Citizens, including the Virginia branch, the son of a Confederate veteran, sued Charlottesville for the demolition plan. In April, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the city can remove the two Confederate statues, overturning the state circuit court’s decision to uphold the citizen suit.
According to a statement on Friday, the city installed protective fences around the park and designated no-parking areas in response to Saturday’s demolition work.
When asked if the city government is aware of any planned protests, Wheeler said, “Our feelings about this show that we are inviting the public to join our park.”
“We think many of our community members really want to see this happen there.”
(Reporting by Julia Harte, editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
