On Monday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that the statue of Robert E. Lee was removed from the US Capitol on Sunday night. The statue, which will be relocated to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, has been at the Capitol for 111 years. A state commission recommended a statue of civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns as a replacement.
According to Virginias Governor’s office, the states General Assembly must approve the replacement statue before a sculptor can be commissioned. Governor Northam proposed $500,000 to replace it. If approved, the Barbara Rose Johns statue would be the only teenager represented in the US Capitol collection. Each state has a representative statue.
