WORT 89.9FM Madison · Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee Statue To Be Recycled Into A Work That Will Reflect Racial Justice

In January of 2019 a 112 year old stone cenotaph containing the names of 140 Confederate prisoners of war who died at Camp Randall was removed from Madison’s Forest Hill Cemetery after a long debate.

The removal of Confederate monuments has been an ongoing process since the 1960’s but has recently began picking up steam due to events like the murdering of George Floyd in 2020 and the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally in 2017. What is to be done with these multi-ton bronze white elephants once they come down is another topic of debate. In June earlier this year the City of Charlottesville announced that they would be giving the Robert E. Lee statue to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to be melted down to create public artwork that will “reflect racial justice,”

WORT Alum and the current General Manager of WTJU 91.1 FM at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Nathan Moore, joins Friday Buzz host, Brian Standing, to talk more about this.

 

 

(Images courtesy of James DeMers on pixabay and Nathan Moore)

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