Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to transform Robert E. Lee statue into public art

The Lee statue was removed last July following years of advocacy


By Lauren O'Neil
December 10, 2021

Early Tuesday morning, Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to donate the contentious statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. JSAAHC plans to melt the bronze statue into metal blocks and transform the metal into a new public work of art.

In early July, City Council removed the Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Sacagawea statues from their stone bases. Calls for the Lee statue’s removal first began in 2016, when third-year College student Zyahna Bryant — then a high school student — circulated a petition calling for the Lee statue’s removal. City Council to vote in favor of removal later that year, which became the focus of national attention when white supremacist groups and inviduals flocked to Charlotttesvilel for the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017.

After the removal, the statues were moved into a secure undisclosed storage facility. Individuals and organizations then had until Oct. 15 to submit formal proposals containing plans for the statues. City Council held the power to choose amongst the proposals or continue holding the statues in storage.

JSAAHC was the only local organization to submit a proposal, titled “Swords into Plowshares.” Per the Charlottesville Tomorrow, JSAAHC Executive Director Andrea Douglas said priority input will be given to descendants of those enslaved in neighboring communities, as was done during the construction of the University’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.

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