ARLINGTON, Va. — The process to remove a Confederate monument from the Arlington National Cemetery resumed Wednesday after a judge denied an injunction that would have blocked the removal of the statue.
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Monday barring the removal of the memorial to Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston explained that he issued to order after receiving an urgent phone call from memorial supporters claiming that gravesites near the memorial were being desecrated and disturbed by contactors.
A day later, he toured the cemetery and saw the site being treated respectfully.
“I saw no desecration of any graves,” Alston said. “The grass wasn't even disturbed.”
Alston denied a preliminary injunction Tuesday and vacated the temporary restraining order that had been keeping crews from removing the statue.
"This case essentially attempts to place this Court at the center of a great debate between individuals extolling the virtues, romanticism and history of the Old South and equally passionate individuals, with government endorsement, who believe that art accentuating what they believe is a harsh depiction of a time when a certain race of people were enslaved and treated like property is not deserving of a memorial at a place of refuge, honor and national recognition," court documents read. "To be sure, this Court’s disposition does not have to resolve this great debate but rather is decided on the relevant case law, statutory law and administrative direction which governs this Court’s decision."
Arlington National Cemetery said in a statement to WUSA9 that with the court ruling in place, the Army will resume the deliberate process of removing the Confederate Memorial immediately.
"While the work is performed, surrounding graves, headstones and the landscape will be carefully protected by a dedicated team, preserving the sanctity of all those laid to rest in Section 16," the statement reads.
Crews returned to the site Wednesday and removed the main statue of the monument. Officials estimate it could take until Friday for the entire monument to be removed.
The statue, designed to represent the American South and unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal. The woman holds a laurel wreath, plow stock and pruning hook, and a biblical inscription at her feet says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”
Some of the figures also on the statue include a Black woman depicted as “Mammy” holding what is said to be the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.
Defend Arlington, in conjunction with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, has filed multiple lawsuits trying to keep the memorial in place. The group contends that the memorial was built to promote reconciliation between the North and South and that removing the memorial erodes that reconciliation.
Tuesday's hearing focused largely on legal issues, but Alston questioned the heritage group's lawyers about the notion that the memorial promotes reconciliation. He noted that the statue depicts, among other things, a “slave running after his ‘massa’ as he walks down the road. What is reconciling about that?" asked Alston, an African American who was appointed to the bench in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who disagrees with the decision to remove the memorial, made arrangements for it to be moved to land owned by the Virginia Military Institute at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley.
"The governor formally asked Secretary Austin to ensure that the grave of Moses Ezekiel and the accompanying memorial atop his grave remain in its revered location at the Arlington National Cemetery," Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a statement to WUSA9. "The governor is disappointed that the Biden administration still sought to remove the memorial but believes that the New Market Battlefield State Park in the Shenandoah Valley will provide a fitting backdrop to Ezekiel’s legacy as a legendary sculptor and Virginian even though he disagrees with the Biden administration's decision to remove it."
The NAACP commented on the ruling in a statement, saying:
"The NAACP Arlington Branch supports efforts to remove a confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. A memorial glorifying the confederacy, remaining on the grounds at the final resting place of some our nations greatest heroes, is simply unimaginable. The confederate memorial is a continual and excruciating reminder of an era when white people fought to keep Black people enslaved and it’s time to remove the memorial from Arlington National"
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