Protesters transformed Richmond's Robert E. Lee memorial. Now they mourn the loss of their ...

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Protesters transformed Richmond’s Robert E. Lee memorial. Now they mourn the loss of their most powerful icon of resistance.



Workers erect scaffolding around the pedestal that once held the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond this month. (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Washington Post)

By Gregory S. Schneider
Yesterday at 4:00 p.m. EST

RICHMOND — The memorials are nestled in white tissue inside boxes in a state warehouse. Ribbons, plastic flowers, photographs, a crystal angel — each tribute to a life cut short by violence had been left at the foot of this city’s giant statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee during the 2020 summer of protests against racial inequity.

The figure of Lee finally came down in September, cast aside as a relic of the racist Lost Cause of the Confederacy. Its 40-foot stone pedestal was transformed by graffiti into an icon of protest and resistance, recognized around the world. But now it, too, is being dismantled, block by block.

Soon all that will remain at the center of Monument Avenue is a sweeping circle of grass.

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Isaiah Bowen takes a shot at a basketball hoop in front of the statue in 2020. (Steve Helber/Associated Press)

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By Gregory S. Schneider
Greg Schneider covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was The Washington Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also covered aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry for The Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/SchneiderG