The Virginia Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the city of Charlottesville can legally remove statues of Confederate Civil War generals, overturning a lower court ruling.
Statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, erected in 1924 and 1921, respectively, have been the topic of controversy in the city for several years, as the public has become less tolerant of racist symbols and monuments. Charlottesville city leaders were sued by a group of citizens after voting to remove the statues in the wake of a white nationalist rally in 2017.
A state circuit court sided with those citizens in 2019 on the grounds that removing the statues would violate a state law on the “disturbance of or interference with” war memorials. The city appealed that ruling, however, and on Thursday the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Charlottesville officials.