Charlottesville’s crowd cheered and applauded when they took down the Confederate statue near the site of a violent white nationalist rally which happened three years ago.
This removal of this bronze sculpture – Confederate soldier known as “At Ready” – was a big step toward getting rid of controversial monuments of the Civil War.
As per the sources, the procedure began on Saturday morning, which included workers who affixed straps on the 410kg (900 pounds) statue to arrange the process of taking down it from its base.
Behind the metal fence, about 100 people were cheering when the sculpture started to lift and finally it lowered to the ground. The “At Ready” statue was in front of the Albermarle County courthouse for 111 years.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, every person in the crowd was wearing a mask. Some people were dancing to music on the local radio and also some members of the crowd were wearing blue Union Civil War caps.
This happy scene was in strong contrast to the violent incident which happened on 12th August in 2017, at the Unite The Right rally.
The 2017 situation contained that a woman was killed and a large number of people got injured by a self-avowed white supremacist driver who drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist gathering.
Earlier this summer Albemarle County supervisors have decided by votes to remove the statue which is located in Charlottesville.
The sculpture was not the center of the point of the 2017 rally, incident, nevertheless it is a block away from the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups said they were defending in the clash. However, a small follower group of Confederate supporters took legal action to save them.
The case got forwarded to the Supreme Court of Virginia and it could take months to clarify, resolve it.
Don Gathers, the local community organizer said that it is a magnificent moment because most of the racial tension and protests came from Charlottesville, but now they are trying to make things better.