“We hope that the Jefferson School and African-American Heritage Center will implement their very detailed proposal,” Snook said.
In October, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center requested possession the statue, installed in the downtown area of Charlottesville in 1924, in order to transform it into a new monument that will reflect the values of inclusivity and racial justice.
The proposal said using the original statue’s melted bronze in a new way will be a powerful symbol of social change.
Snook pointed out that the statue was moved from Charlottesville downtown to a less visible place in a city park in July. However, the main problem is that it was attracting attention of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, he added.
“The statue glorifies someone who actively fought against the US government in an effort to perpetuate slavery for millions of black people,” Snook said. “That park had been created specifically as a park for white people and that statue was its centerpiece.”
Having a statue there hurt some parts of the community, particularly African Americans, Snook added.
On 11 August 2017, far right supporters held a rally near the University of Virginia that resulted in a brawl with a group of counter-protesters.
The next day, a major Unite the Right rally gathered thousands of right supporters, but also far right neo-Nazi supporters, in downtown Charlottesville, who gathered to protest the authorities’ plans to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee.
The rally led to violence between the protesters and counter-protesters, culminating in a car ramming into a protester and killing her while wounding several others.