Arlington National Cemetery has been granted permission to proceed with the removal of a century-old Confederate memorial, following a temporary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston. The judge initially halted the removal due to concerns about potential disturbance to adjacent gravesites, but after personally inspecting the site, he found no evidence of desecration and subsequently lifted the injunction.
The Arlington National Cemetery officials, required by law to complete the removal by the year’s end, argued that the contractors had limited availability over the next week. In response to the judge’s decision, the cemetery announced the immediate resumption of the removal process, assuring the careful protection of surrounding graves, headstones, and the landscape.
The Confederate memorial, erected in 1914, features a bronze woman atop a 32-foot pedestal, symbolizing the American South. Controversially, the statue includes depictions of a Black woman as “Mammy” holding a white officer’s child and an enslaved man following his owner to war. An independent commission recommended the removal last year as part of a broader review of Army bases with Confederate names.
Legal challenges from groups like Defend Arlington and Save Southern Heritage Florida, seeking to preserve the memorial, have been ongoing. These groups argue that the statue promotes reconciliation between the North and South and removing it undermines that reconciliation. During the hearing, Judge Alston questioned the heritage group’s lawyers about the reconciliation claim, particularly noting the portrayal of a slave on the statue.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who disagrees with the decision to remove the memorial, has arranged for its relocation to land owned by the Virginia Military Institute at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley.
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