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NORFOLK — Before the weekend, the city of Norfolk plans to start dismantling the downtown Confederate monument.
Contractors will remove the bronze statue of a Confederate soldier that stands atop the 80-foot monument “within 24 hours,” weather permitting, Mayor Kenny Alexander announced at a press conference Thursday evening at the monument. It will take several more weeks to take apart the rest of the marble and bronze structure at Main Street and Commercial Place.
The monument will be moved a mile and a half away to Elmwood Cemetery.
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The City Council has said for almost three years that it planned to move the monument, and just last week the city attorney outlined the process Norfolk would follow to move it as early as Aug. 7.
But after a man was struck by a falling statue during a protest Wednesday night at Portsmouth’s Confederate monument, Alexander said the city decided to remove Norfolk’s statue now, “out of an abundance of caution.”
“Our city cannot ensure the safety of people and property if there is an attempt to pull down this statue,” Alexander said.
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Chris Green, the man who was hurt in Portsmouth, remained hospitalized with life-threatening injuries as of Thursday morning, according to Virginia State Police.
The city previously planned to begin the process July 1, when a new law goes into effect regarding the removal of monuments. On Thursday, Alexander said public safety trumps waiting another month until the law goes into effect, calling the timetable more of a “procedural” matter than one of policy.
Alexander said the Virginia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans doesn’t oppose moving the monument to Elmwood Cemetery.
With rainstorms in the forecast, City Manager Chip Filer said contractors will remove the statue as soon as it is safe to do so and “take it into safe storage.” Crews will then come back over several weeks to move the multiple pieces of the remaining column.
The statue alone is almost 16 feet tall and weighs about 2,500 pounds, according to the city. It will take two construction cranes — and about four to six hours — to remove it.
“We must understand that overturning statues is easy,” Alexander said. “But the hard work of overturning generations of hate, inequality and injustice remains ahead of all of us. And addressing the massive impact of Norfolk’s own legacy of racism will require all of us to work together.”
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com