ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - Officials in the Virginia city of Roanoke have started a process to remove a memorial marker to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The Roanoke Times reports that the city council on Monday unanimously approved a resolution to remove the 60-year-old granite shaft from a downtown plaza.
The memorial has stood in the city since 1960. It was dedicated by a Roanoke chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
City officials are working under a new state law that took effect his month and gives local governments the ability to remove war memorial statues and markers.
The council must give 30 days notice of a public hearing. That’s scheduled for Aug. 17. The city then must wait another 30 days to consider possible offers to take the memorial from museums, battlefields or other organizations. After that, the city could remove the memorial sometime after the middle of September.
Confederate monuments have been coming down in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. Protests erupted across the country, prompting some demonstrators to tear down Confederate memorials or state and city officials to remove them.
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