Baltimore hauls away four Confederate monuments after overnight removal

Washington Post

Crews removed Baltimore’s Confederate statues early Wednesday, days after the deadly unrest in Charlottesville instigated by white nationalists rallying to defend a downtown Confederate monument.

The quiet and sudden removal of four monuments, with little fanfare and no advance notice, marks an attempt by the city to avoid a long, bruising conflict that has embroiled Charlottesville and other communities rethinking how they honor figures who fought to preserve slavery.  

Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh (D) announced Monday she was in talks with contractors to haul away the statues, and the city council approved a removal plan that night. Some activists had vowed to destroy the monuments before government could act.

Photos and video posted on social media Wednesday morning showed crews using cranes to remove statues of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, hauled away on a flatbed truck. Statues honoring Confederate women and Roger B. Taney, the former chief justice who authored the notorious proslavery Dred Scott decision, were also removed.

Another statue to Confederate soldiers slated for removal, which was defaced with bright red paint over the weekend, also appears to be gone.

On the base of the now-empty Jackson and Lee monument are messages saying “Black lives matter” and “F— the Confederacy,” according to photos shared on Twitter.

Confederate women's monument at Charles and University Parkway. pic.twitter.com/DaR2nPCcj9

— Baynard Woods (@baynardwoods) August 16, 2017

Pugh told the Baltimore Sun on Wednesday that crews worked from 11:30 p.m. Tuesday to 5:30 a.m. to remove the statues, and swift overnight removal with little fanfare was meant to stave off the kind of violent conflicts that embroiled Charlottesville.

“It’s done,” she told the Sun. “They needed to come down. My concern is for the safety and security of our people. We moved as quickly as we could.”

It’s unclear what will come of these statues. Councilman Brandon Scott tweeted that they should be melted down and their materials recycled to honor “true Maryland heroes.”

A commission appointed by former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake after a white supremacist killed nine African Americans in a historically black church in South Carolian recommended the removal of the Lee-Jackson monument, and signs adding historical context to two other statues. Pugh criticized the inaction following the commission’s recommendations.

Across the nation, Confederate monuments have come under renewed scrutiny following widespread disgust at how the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville became a rallying point for white supremacists this year.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Tuesday announced he’d support removing the statue of Taney from State House grounds. The statue had been defended by Democrats and Republicans alike, and Hogan last year described calls to remove it as “political correctness run amok.”

Trump accomplishment: the removal of Jackson and Lee after nearly 70 years in Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/MkIDRAxZzq

— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) August 16, 2017

The mayor of Lexington, Ky. is seeking approval to relocate two Confederate-era monuments in the city, citing the Charlottesville clashes for the timing of his decision. Officials in other southern cities have been considering removal as well.

Elsewhere, activists have been pushing to bring monuments down with or without the government’s support. A woman in North Carolina faces felony charges in connectionwith the vandalism and toppling of a monument to Confederate soldiers in Durham.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/baltimore-begins-taking-down-confederate-statues/2017/08/16/f32aa26e-8265-11e7-b359-15a3617c767b_story.html?utm_term=.a3fa0e0d611e