Patricia N. Saffran, The Charlottesville Lee Equestrian Statue Meltdown Postmortem
Patricia N. Saffran
A Premeditated Execution in Effigy
When the Shrady/Lentelli Robert E. Lee Equestrian Monument was
unveiled on May 21, 1924, in Charlottesville, a child pulled off the
covering to the cheering crowd. The much admired Beaux Art sculpture had
the elegance of the art movement, which featured harmonious proportions
that are meant to evoke pleasing ancient Greek and Roman statues. All
weekend long a reunion of Confederate troops was held in conjunction
with the unveiling. Some of the speakers spoke about the gift from
philanthropist Paul Goodloe McIntire to beautify Charlottesville of this
sculpture and three other Beaux Arts sculptures such the Charles Keck’s
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, 1921. Other speakers spoke at length of
Lee’s life and his military career. One of the addresses mentioned that
Lee abhorred slavery. (Lee was ahead of his time when he freed his
slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation.) Since the country had
recently experienced WWI, another theme in the speeches was peace and
reconciliation, downplaying the turbulence following the Civil War.
Commander Lee O. Miller of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, addressed veterans on May 20, 1924, in the Masonic Temple saying,
“We are coming to understand that Appomattox was a crisis in American history. The Army of Northern Virginia had reached the limit of its power of resistance, but a great section of this nation still remained militant and unconquered. The Southern Confederacy might still maintain its armed contention in scattered guerrilla warfare for many years, Lee was the only living man who could bring peace to America. So completely had he gained the loving confidence of the Southern people, that he was the only man who could surrender the Confederacy.
“He [Lee] faced the issue without flinching. His ideal for democracy — the Virginia ideal — had failed. But the question remained, should all hope of the maintenance of any democratic union in this country fail also? The contemplation of the continuation of the struggle by irregular warfare, carried on by roving bands and scattered groups of uncontrolled and undisciplined guerrillas, with its inevitable cruelties and wreckage, idled the soul of Lee with horror. His decision . . was Robert Edward Lee’s contribution of peace and freedom to the children of America.
“In 1917-18 when the sons of the blue and of the gray kept step beneath the starry light and flaunting folds of one flag, permeated with the one purpose to make its ideal of democracy regnant among the nations of the world, it was because Lee, with the vision of a statesman and the unselfishness of a patriot, surrendered at Appomattox. And now he turns old Traveler’s head away from the battlefield . . . he rides on to the little impoverished college [Washington and Lee] in the rock-ribbed hills of Virginia, with the words, ‘I have a self-imposed task. As I have led the sons of the South upon the field of battle, so must I now lead them in the paths of peace.’”
Peace after the Civil War was on Lee’s mind but was peace on the
minds of those who melted down the Lee statue on October 27, 2023?’
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on Little Sorrel
The Lee and Jackson statues referred to in the 1924 speeches were
removed from their plinths in one piece on July 10, 2021. The Jackson on
Little Sorrel statue was sent to the LAXART Museum and The Geffen
Contemporary at MOCA in LA for a future Civil War exhibition. They gave
approximately $50,000. for the loan of Jackson. The Charlottesville City
Council refused to give them Lee even though the museum offered an
additional $50,000. Instead, the City Council gave Lee to the Jefferson
School African American Heritage Center who expressed a desire to melt
the statue down, which resulted in a court case brought by
preservationists. The Lee statue was then put into storage and secretly
broken up into smaller pieces. Supposedly, the statue wasn’t cut on the
joints, meaning it couldn’t be easily reassembled or recognized as Lee
and Traveler again. The same day that the Lee and Jackson statues were
removed, after an emergency meeting, the City Council ordered Charles
Keck’s Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and Sacagawea statue, 1919, also
to be removed later in the afternoon. The following day the sculpture
grouping with Revolutionary War Brigadier General George Rogers Clark
was also removed. These sculptures had all been gifts from Paul Goodloe
McIntire.
As to the Lee sculpture sitting in pieces in storage, Andrea
Douglas, Executive Director, Jefferson School African American Heritage
Center, pressed further to melt it down. She obtained much of the $1.1
million funding needed for the meltdown from the Soros Open Society,
Charlottesville philanthropist Elizabeth Breeden, and Virginia
Humanities. Dr. Douglas wanted the bronze pieces to go toward creating a
new statue with community input, which drew criticism from some in the
community as a waste of money. They argued that a new statue from
bronze would only cost about $100 thousand. Her project is called, “Swords into Plowshares,” and her partner for this venture is local resident, Dr. Jalene Schmidt. In a press statement on December 8, 2021 to WUSA9 News. Dr.
Douglas defended her position to completely destroy the statue, saying,
“It’s a moral decision for us. We don’t want our trauma moved to
another community.” Dr. Douglas may be referring to Unite the Right’s
disruptive rally to preserve Lee in Lee Park in August 2017 in which all
participants had matching tiki torches.
Dr. Douglas was sent a series of questions on September 19, 2022,
during the court case to prevent the meltdown. She wrote that she
couldn’t answer (due to the court case). Andrea Douglas had announced that the statue was already in pieces, so that it couldn’t be put back together.
In the court case, Plaintiffs, the Trevilian Station Battlefield
Foundation and the Ratcliffe Foundation, said cutting up and melting
down the the statue was illegal. They wanted the City to recomplete and
restore the statue, or find alternative uses for the bronze such as
turning the remains into a cannon for a Civil War battlefield.
An advisor to the Monument Fund that represented the Plaintiffs in
the suit against the City Council (that gave the statue to the Jefferson
School) and school itself, said on October 20, 2023, “Our case was
nonsuited (voluntarily dismissed). The Judge made a series of rulings
that left the remaining Plaintiff Trevilian with little or nothing to
win. Continuing a fight for the sake of fighting, when there are no
resources and nothing to win, is contrary to the honorable example of
Robert E. Lee. In my view the video of defacing Lee (literally) so
outraged folks that bringing any piece of it back to Charlottesville is
going to bring violence back to Charlottesville. The deterioration of
Charlottesville is evident in what has happened since Lee was removed in
the now empty Lee Park: a haven for alcoholics and drug addicts
(beware smashed bottles and discarded needles) a tent city for the
homeless including the mentally ill just recently shut down. Just in
the last month a stabbing in or near Lee park; a murder by eight
gunshots a block away. [Lee
Park, which was renamed Market Street Park, had become so toxic to the
community that it was recently cleared out on October 22, 2023.] The
loss of the Lee monument, a magnificent image of quiet decorum which
brought civility and decency to our downtown — has been a loss to us
all.”
Recently, November 2, 2023, Andrea Douglas was sent more questions
about the meltdown, after it occurred, such as, “With the polls showing
statue removals were not supported by 52% of the population why did you
pursue the Lee meltdown? Why did you not pursue giving away the Lee
statue either to LAXART museum (who offered $50,000. for it, similar to
what they’re paying to exhibit the Keck Jackson sculpture, that
Charlottesville released to them) or to private individuals, who
wouldn’t have experienced any pain from having it on their property or
in their museum? Contractor Devon Henry said he lifted the Lee statue
in one piece and transported it that way. When someone else broke it
down into pieces, which you said couldn’t be put back together, why did
you save the head and sword whole? Why didn’t you save the horse’s head
whole (which would be of value to collectors?) Since statue removals
result in spikes in violent crime, didn’t you consider that a meltdown
might incite even greater violence?”
Andrea Douglas once again declined to comment. It should be noted
that the video that was distributed publicly of a private meltdown of
Lee’s head and sword, seems to contradict her previous statement about
the statue had been already cut up into small pieces, giving the
illusion that Lee wouldn’t be recognizable. It appears that she had
intentionally saved larger pieces of the monument for her video, to make
it as lurid and violent as possible, as if a life-like murder was
taking place. Was this Dr. Douglas’s ode to peace? Lee had better
intentions, to end violence. The Lee statue meltdown can best be
described as a premeditated execution in effigy.
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