Today, the City of Richmond will begin removing the last portion of what had become an increasingly contentious statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Only one monument remains on Richmond’s Monument Avenue, honoring a black man: Richmond native and tennis champ Arthur Ashe.
Although the vision for what Monument Avenue may become remains incomplete, responsibility for completing the project has been assigned.
Per Virginia Mercury:
Neither Richmond nor the state have made any decisions about what to do next, instead charging the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with leading “a community-driven effort to reimagine Monument Avenue.”
…
A spokeswoman, Amy Peck, said the museum is still hiring staff to run the program. “Inclusivity will be central to this initiative, which will kick off within the year, and it will involve community leaders, stakeholders, artists, urban planners, archivists and historians in its planning and implementation.”
The fate of the removed Confederate statues remains unclear:
Several pro-Confederate groups have also asked for the statues, including the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a small Tennessee-based company that calls itself the “New Confederate States of America” and promised to locate the memorials on private property and guard them 24 hours a day.
Finally, an artist requested the city’s Stonewall Jackson statue, which he said he planned to cut into small pieces and sell.