CHARLOTTESVILLE, LOUISIANA: The black history museum in Charlottesville has surreptitiously destroyed the statue of General Robert E Lee that served as the impetus for the "Unite the Right" demonstration.
The monument honoring General Lee, a renowned slave owner and commander of the Confederate Army, was taken down from its pedestal in Charlottesville, Virginia, in July 2021.
After winning a drawn-out legal struggle with the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups, Charlottesville gave the monument of Lee to a coalition that wanted to demolish it and replace it with a more inclusive piece of public art.
The Confederate general statue that originally stood in Charlottesville and which served as the impetus for the fatal “Unite the Right” rally in 2017 was therefore broken into pieces and thrown into a furnace, where it would eventually dissolve into a fiery sludge of bronze.
Robert E Lee's statue had to be moved 'on more than one occasion' due to safety concerns
Due to the participants’ concerns about violence, The Washington Post decided not to disclose the area or state where the museum carried out its plan in secret on Saturday, October 21, at a small Southern factory outside of Virginia.
While some Confederate monuments have been demolished across the nation, the majority have been stored or erected on sites associated with the Civil War that honor the Lost Cause.
However, there is a chance that this is the first Confederate monument to be melted, and the meaning of the picture varied among those who saw it on Saturday.
Executive director of the museum Andrea Douglas remarked, "Well, they can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again," as she observed fragments of oxidized metal falling into the furnace. "There will be no tape for that."
The statue was removed by the city in July 2021, and it was placed in a bus depot until the Jefferson School – African American Heritage Center was chosen to receive it by vote.
According to Douglas, safety concerns have caused the museum to relocate Lee "on more than one occasion" in the past two years.
Before it even made it to the foundry, Lee was dismembered into nine pieces after the museum got the statue from the city. However, museum officials would not specify where or when it was done.
The general's head was taken off of both his body and Traveller, his horse, but it still needed to be disassembled in order to fit into this little furnace.
Three foundry workers sliced seven deep gashes into Lee's severed head, illuminating the scene with bluish-white light and orange sparks.
All that was remaining of the general's head was some dirt and rust accumulation along with a few patches of wax mold.
The foundry workers moved the statue fragments from the indoor workshop to the outdoor yard, where a small audience began to gather to observe the event, by placing them in a metal cage and covering them with a blanket.
This whole thing might have started as early as January 2022. However, the museum waited until a court decided to dismiss the complaint after it was filed to avert the meltdown.
The plaintiffs' 30-day opportunity to challenge the ruling ended Thursday afternoon, October 26.
Internet concerned as Robert E Lee's melting head sparks online memefest
Images of General Lee's melting head have sparked an online meme bonanza where netizens took to social media platforms to create a trend on the topical subject.
An X (formerly Twitter) user with username @EndWokeness posted a clip of Lee's melting head and wrote:, "The historical statue of General Robert E. Lee was melted down in a furnace by the Black History Museum in Charlottesville The melted mush will be used as a new piece of public art."
Several other X users took to the comment section to create memes on the ongoing topic, with one X user saying, "Nothing will ever make these types of people happy."
Others have shared funny images to continue the meme fest.
"Kind of like how certain groups in history like to destroy all evidence of a specific culture..." said another X user.
Another user enquired, "Will it be another another giant pick or the bust of a criminal junkie?"
"I'm sure it will be something in celebration of the alphabet crew. I mean seriously they don't have enough holidays or months dedicated to them," mocked one user.
One more quipped, "That should solve the worlds problems no doubt. Who knew it was so easy."
