Richmond removes Confederate Maury statue
Richmond’s stately Monument Avenue looks slightly different Thursday than it did Wednesday, and will look different in the near future.
By 10 a.m. Thursday morning, the statue of astronomer and Confederate naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury had been removed by work crews for the city of Richmond to cheers from 200 bystanders.
WATCH: Statue for Confederate naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury is removed from Monument Avenue, in Richmond. pic.twitter.com/2WQg6RyuSZ
— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) July 2, 2020
It took less than an hour to remove the statue that had been sitting along Monument Avenue since 1929 — the last of five Confederate monuments to be erected. Maury was depicted sitting in a chair with a large globe behind him.
Richmond mayor Levar Stoney said that the Maury statue, along with other Confederate statues, will be put into storage.
A cherry picker arrived shortly after 9 a.m. to prepare to remove the Maury statue, starting with work crews cutting the metal fencing around it. By the end of the 9 o’clock hour, the crew secured a strap to the statue so it could be lifted off its position by the cherry picker.
A living history lesson for two young children, as they and their mother watch preparations for the removal of the statue to Confederate naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury. Richmond Mayor @LevarStoney ordered the removal of all Confederate statues on city land. pic.twitter.com/UfcsuHoYd9
— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) July 2, 2020
Stoney had promised Wednesday all Confederate statues on city-owned property — including the Maury statue — will be removed, as soon as possible.
On the tree-lined street, flanked by mansions, statues memorializing Virginian Confederate generals are in the process of being removed.
On Thursday morning, a graffiti-filled base was all that was left in the intersection of Monument Avenue and N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard, after Wednesday’s removal of the equestrian statue of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, during an afternoon thunderstorm, as hundreds watched and cheered.
Earlier Wednesday — on the day a new Virginia state law took effect, allowing localities to remove Confederate war monuments in their jurisdictions — Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat, declared an emergency order to remove them, as a matter of public safety.
On June 10, the statue of Jefferson Davis, which was unveiled in 1907, was toppled by protesters.
The statue removals come at a time of widespread introspection of the country’s racial legacy. The Black Lives Matter movement, vitalized by the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans, while in police custody, has resulted in the removal of Confederate monuments and other symbols of systemic racism across the country.
City officials had not said specified which of the two remaining Confederate statues on Richmond property — J.E.B. Stuart and the statue of Maury — would be removed next.
The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands on state-owned property. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, ordered it removed. However, a lawsuit filed by a descendant of the couple who owned the property before it was turned over to the state, argues the deed ensured the land and monument would stand and be cared for forever.
Attorney General Mark Herring has said Northam is well within his rights as governor to order the divisive statue removed.
On Thursday morning, protesters calling for the removal of the Lee statue maintained a vigil on the grassy circle surrounding the now-defaced monument, as sightseers snapped photos of the denuded base of the Jackson statue.
Neighbors walked their dogs along the avenue, and joggers maintained a sense of normalcy, as city and state leaders contemplated next steps in removing the Confederate symbols that began lining Monument Avenue in 1890.
The Monument Avenue statue of tennis star Arthur Ashe — an African-American Richmond native, was unveiled in 1996.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.