Confederate general statue toppled in 2020 to be reinstalled in D.C.
The bronze statue depicting Confederate Gen. Albert Pike is being restored, the Park Service said in a statement Monday. Officials shared a photo of a worker removing corrosion and paint.
'The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation's capital and re-instate pre-existing statues,' a statement from the agency said.
In June 2020, demonstrators used ropes to tear down the statue outside Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. On live TV, they doused the statue in lighter fluid and set it ablaze.
Mayor Muriel Bowser decried property destruction and defended city police. President Donald Trump then called for the statue to go back up.
Crews are aiming to have the statue up in October, the Park Service said.
'Site preparation to repair the statue's damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements,' the statement said.
The Pike statue, dedicated in 1901, has been a source of controversy for years. The Confederate general also was a longtime leader of the Freemasons, who revere Pike. It was built at the request of Masons, who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing.
D.C. officials tried to remove the statue for years. The D.C. Council said it first called for its removal in 1992. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced multiple bills in Congress to get it removed.
referred to Pike as a 'chief founder of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan.' The Klan connection is a frequent accusation from Pike's critics and one which the Masons dispute.
In an executive order this March on 'restoring truth and sanity to American history,' Trump said the secretary of the Interior would determine whether statutes have been removed since 2020 to 'perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology.' Trump ordered their reinstatement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Messmer makes it official: He will seek re-election to Congress
Republican 8th District Congressman Mark Messmer made it official Tuesday: he will run for re-election next year, and he will do so with an endorsement from President Donald Trump. Messmer, a Jasper-based Republican, was elected to his first two-year term in 2024. He succeeded Larry Bucshon, who held the seat for 14 years. The 2026 House race in the 8th District has only begun to take shape, with Democratic Evansville City Council member Mary Allen set to announce her candidacy Wednesday. The 21-county 8th District stretches from southern Posey County up the Illinois-Indiana border to the top of Fountain County. Vanderburgh County is the largest county in the district by far. The district also includes Warrick, Gibson and Posey counties. Messmer, 62, released a written statement with his announcement Tuesday. "We must be bold and unapologetic in fighting for the principles of the American Founding," it says. "We have a leader in the White House who is working every day for the American people and not special interests, and we need members in Congress who will fight with President Trump to make sure America continues to be an exceptional nation filled with promise for the next generation." Trump's statement on Truth Social endorsing Messmer calls him "a fantastic representative." "Mark has an incredible Record of Success, and strong support from his Community," Trump's statement says. "In Congress, he is working tirelessly to Protect 'Hoosier' Values, Support our Amazing Farmers and Ranchers, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Ensure American Energy DOMINANCE by helping to keep the price of Gasoline, Oil, and all forms of Energy VERY LOW (CHEAP!), Help Secure our now VERY Secure (Record Setting!) Southern Border, Champion our Military/Veterans, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment." Messmer's campaign reports having $427,302 cash on-hand as of June 30 with $8,250 in debt, according to the Federal Election Commission. This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Messmer makes it official: He will seek re-election to Congress Solve the daily Crossword
Axios
17 minutes ago
- Axios
Richmond Confederate statues removed in 2020 head to LA
The peed-on Jefferson Davis statue that protesters took down in 2020 is temporarily moving out of Richmond. Why it matters: It's one of several of Richmond's Confederate monuments being shipped to Los Angeles for an exhibit about how these statues — and their recent removal from public spaces — have shaped American history. Driving the news: The Valentine announced Monday that the Confederate Statespresident's statue, displayed at the Richmond museum for over three years, is headed to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art on Aug. 17. Then on Tuesday, the Black History Museum in Jackson Ward said it's also loaning the LA exhibit Confederate-era monuments that the city took down in 2020. These include the "Vindicatrix" sculpture known as "Miss Confederacy" that sat atop the Davis monument, the Matthew Fontaine Maury statue and globe, and granite slabs from different Confederate monument bases. The pieces will be "recontextualized" in the exhibit to "foster critical dialogue about their historical significance and the ideologies they represent," the museum said in a news release. Zoom out: The exhibit, which runs from October to April, starts months after the Trump administration ordered a federal review of the statues toppled in the wake of George Floyd's murder. The city owns the land where the Confederate monuments in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, once stood. And most of the taken-down monuments remain in the city's wastewater treatment plant. What's next: The Valentine is closing its survey about people's feelings regarding the monuments' removal, and where they should be moved, on Aug. 18. Results will be shared by the end of October.
Buzz Feed
17 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
Trump's Drug Price Claims Spark Disbelief Online
Donald Trump's math on cutting drug prices didn't add up. Again. The president this weekend repeated his promise to get pharma companies to lower the cost of medications for Americans, who often have to pay much more for certain drugs than people abroad. But the actual amount of the 'tremendous drop' in cost that Trump boasted about had critics scratching their heads. 'You know, we've cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%,' Trump said. CNN 'I don't mean 50%. I mean 14, 1,500%,' he added. CNN But as many on social media pointed out, that would mean all drugs are free and people actually get paid to receive them. Trump: You know, we've cut drug prices by 1200, 1300, 1400, 1,500%. I don't mean 50%. I mean 1400, 1,500% — Acyn (@Acyn) August 4, 2025 @Acyn / CNN / Via Also, drug prices haven't actually come down, despite Trump's pressure on pharmaceutical companies. Trump appeared to acknowledge that when he later said, 'We'll be dropping drug prices ... by 1,200, 1,300 and even 1,400% and 500% but not just 50% or 25%, which normally would be a lot because the rest of the world pays much less for the identical drug.' CNN Reality is 'eroding before our eyes,' said one critic. Others agreed. Tomorrow, it'll be eleventy thousand percent, and the media will report it without question, and we'll all shake our heads and move along, and it'll be just another day of reality eroding before our eyes. — Jennifer Erin Valent 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@JenniferEValent) August 4, 2025 @JenniferEValent / CNN / Via Time and again, he's shown himself to be utterly innumerate. — George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway3d) August 4, 2025 @gtconway3d / CNN / Via Same guy currently claiming he fired the job numbers expert over bad statistics. — J.J. Abbott (@jjabbott) August 4, 2025 @jjabbott / CNN / Via It's great that we have a numerically illiterate person unilaterally in charge of our tariff policy. — Gregg Nunziata (@greggnunziata) August 4, 2025 @greggnunziata / CNN / Via Wharton (undergrad) called, and they would like their degree back. — Sedge Dienst🇺🇦 (@SedgeDienst) August 4, 2025 @SedgeDienst / CNN / Via 100% would mean all drugs are free. So this is @realDonaldTrump seriously claiming that drug companies are now paying US 14 times the price of our medications just to take them. Dumbest man on the fucking planet. — Andrew—#IAmTheResistance—Wortman (@AmoneyResists) August 4, 2025 @AmoneyResists / CNN / Via I think he MAY have failed first year stats. — Peter Baugh (@PWBaugh) August 4, 2025 @PWBaugh. CNN / Via Is it too much to ask for a president who knows how numbers work. — Michael Freeman (@michaelpfreeman) August 4, 2025 @michaelpfreeman / Via this was in the same discussion in which the president reiterated that he didn't trust the math of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics on the economy: — Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) August 4, 2025 @IsaacDovere / Via There's a real temptation here to make a joke, or to ask which drugs these are that pharma companies are now paying patients to take, because let's all get in on it! But honestly, all I can feel is sad that someone this stupid could be our president. Again. — Dr. Michelle Au (@AuforGA) August 4, 2025 @AuforGA / Via He lies as he breathes. — Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) August 4, 2025 @WajahatAli / Via
