The mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, announced plans Saturday to relocate his city’s Confederate statues, following violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Jim Gray, a Democrat, tweeted as groups clashed in Virginia:
“The tragic events in Charlottesville today have accelerated the announcement I intended to make next week,” Gray said in a statement. “On Tuesday I will ask the Council to support Lexington’s petition to the Kentucky Military Heritage Commission, a required next step. Details to come.”
The protests in Charlottesville stemmed from an event initially touted as a rally in support of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which is slated for removal. Another protest against the statue’s removal took place in May of this year.
Charlotteville’s decision to remove the Lee statue is part of a nationwide effort to remove Confederate monuments from public property.
HuffPost’s Christopher Mathias and Andy Campbell reported in July:
In the two years since white supremacist and Confederate flag admirer Dylann Roof massacred nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church, the movement to remove Confederate symbols from public property has gained renewed purpose and momentum. So far, 60 Confederate symbols have been removed from city- and state-owned land across the U.S., according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Most recently, the city of New Orleans toppled four statues honoring the Confederacy.
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