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Northam seeks $25M for 'historic justice' initiatives

Northam has announced a proposal to spend $25 million to transform historical sites in Virginia, including the spot where Robert E. Lee's statue stood in Richmond.

Credit: AP

This Friday July 10, 2020 file photos shows the graffiti cover the base and pedestal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue Friday July 10, 2020, in Richmond, Va. When the bronze equestrian statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee arrived by rail in Richmond from Paris in 1890, it took 10,000 men, women and children to haul its pieces more than a mile to the site where the towering monument was erected as a tribute to a Confederate hero. Now, 130 years later, the challenges of removing the statue are more related to the intricate logistics of disassembling and transporting it to a storage facility, as well as ensuring worker safety amid heated public debate about Southern heritage versus racism. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

RICHMOND, Va. — Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has announced a proposal to spend $25 million to transform historical sites in Virginia, including the Richmond spot where a soaring statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee became a focal point of protests against racism.

Northam said at a news conference Friday that nearly $11 million of the money would be used to reconstruct Richmond’s Monument Avenue, a historical boulevard that was lined with the Lee statue and other Confederate monuments for more than a century.

His budget proposal would require the approval of the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.