Council decides to donate Lee statue

The Charlottesville, Va., City Council voted Tuesday to donate a statue of Robert E. Lee to an African American heritage center that plans to melt down the bronze monument, which was the focus of a deadly white nationalist rally in 2017, for a new piece of public artwork.

The 4-0 vote by the council followed years of debate over the statue’s fate. Four years ago, a plan to remove the statue drew scores of white nationalists to Charlottesville in 2017 for a “Unite the Right” rally that led to violence, including the killing of a counter-protester by an Ohio man who plowed a car into a crowd.

The 1,100 pound statue’s fate was left to a prolonged fight in court that concluded in April, when Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled that the city could take down two statues of Confederate generals, including Lee’s. Over the summer, workers hoisted it off its granite base and the city sought proposals from bidders who wanted the statue.

On Tuesday decided to give it to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, which submitted a proposal under the name “Swords Into Plowshares.”

The project’s leaders have not decided what the new artwork will look like.