But this is an incredible day,” said Don Gathers, a local Black activist who long advocated for the statue’s removal. Robert E. Lee is the first of two statues being removed in the City of Charlottesville today. Dixon said he was brought as a schoolchild to the park where the Lee statue stood. They met at the base of the Lee statue and then brawled in the streets nearby with anti-racist counterprotesters before the car attack. After the Lee statue was gone, both workers and the crowd moved to a park about two blocks away for the Jackson statue removal.

Source: Huffington Post July 10, 2021 12:22 UTC