So proud of my adopted Commonwealth’s Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s decision to remove this ‘monument.’ This is a prime example of what Democratic leadership can do -- in a legislature, until a year ago dominated by Republicans - with whom the following would never have happened. Votes Count!

[npr.org]

“Virginia will remove a statue honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Richmond "as soon as possible," Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday.

"Today, we're here to be honest about our past, and talk about our future," Northam said, adding, "we have to confront where we've been in order to shape where we're going."

The statue will be placed into storage, where it will remain until discussions between government leaders and the community map out its future, Northam said.

"In Virginia, for more than 400 years, we have set high ideals about freedom and equality," the governor said, "but we have fallen short of many of them."

Lee will be removed from Richmond's Monument Avenue, which is lined with statues of Confederate generals. Of all the monuments, Lee's looms the largest – and unlike the others, it is owned by the state, a six-story monument on a 100-foot island of land the state also owns.

It's up to the city of Richmond to decide what to do with the other statues; it's in the process of determining what their fate will be.”