The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that once stood in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, will be melted down and turned into a public arts project after receiving city council approval this week.
Debate over removing the statute helped ignite the Unite the Right demonstration in August 2017, a deadly neo-Nazi rally where a man drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one person. The statute was finally taken down in July.
As some cities in the South have removed Confederate monuments and symbols, there have been discussions about what to do with the relics.
In Charlottesville, the Jefferson School American Heritage Center, a local Black-led nonprofit, will take on the project, which it has named Swords Into Plowshares. Creating the art piece will help engage the Charlottesville community in how inclusion can be represented through art and public space, the group says.
“Our hope with ‘Swords into Plowshares’ is to create something that transforms what was once toxic in our public space into something beautiful that can be more reflective of our entire community’s social values,” Andrea Douglas, the center’s executive director, said in a statement.
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