5/3/2019 Dallas removes Robert E Lee statue from city park - BBC News

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Dallas removes Robert E Lee statue from city park

15 September 2017

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Robert E Lee statue removed from from park with same name
A statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee has been removed from a Dallas city
park under police guard.

The decision to take down the six-tonne statue, which has stood in Lee Park since 1936, was
made in the wake of recent violence in Charlottesville.

Dallas City Council had voted 13-1 to remove the monument on the grounds it was a symbol
of injustice.

Earlier this month a court threw out a lawsuit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans to keep
the statue in place.

The group had failed to prove the removal was a violation of free speech, the court said.

Should Washington and Jefferson monuments come down?

Why do people still fly the Confederate flag?

The council now needs to decide what to do with the statue showing General Lee - who
commanded forces of the pro-slavery Confederacy in the US Civil War of 1861-65 - and an
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5/3/2019 Dallas removes Robert E Lee statue from city park - BBC News

unnamed Confederate soldier.

REUTERS

However, Michael Van Enter, who oversaw the removal and preservation of the statue, told
CBS DFW that the statue would be preserved.

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5/3/2019 Dallas removes Robert E Lee statue from city park - BBC News

"It's going to be properly conserved until the task force decides what to do with it, where it's
going to be re-commissioned, either in a museum or a graveyard, wherever it's going to go,"
he said.

The Dallas memorial is the latest in a string of statues to be removed in the wake of last
month's violence in Charlottesville, sparked by the decision to remove another Robert E Lee
statue.

People attending a far-right rally in defence of the statue, including white supremacists and
neo-Nazis, clashed with counter-protesters.

One person was killed when a car rammed a crowd of people protesting against the far-right
rally.

The removal of the statues, many of which were put up years after the Civil War had ended,
has led to fierce debate, with some saying their removal was tantamount to erasing history.

Related Topics

Dallas Texas US race relations

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