Four Confederate statues, the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Confederate Women's Monument, Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson Monument, and the Roger B. Taney Monument in Baltimore were removed from their bases overnight by city contractors.
The Baltimore City Council had unanimously passed a resolution this week calling for the removal of the statues. Mayor Catherine Pugh, who made the decision Tuesday morning to remove the monuments overnight, watched in person as the four statues linked to the Confederacy were torn from their pedestals. The decision to remove them in the middle of the night was made after the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend, which resulted in one death and several injuries after a white supremacist plowed his car through a group of counter-protesters.
“We moved quickly and quietly,” the mayor said. “There was enough grandstanding, enough speeches being made. Get it done.”
Construction crews removed the monuments unannounced between 11:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., in an effort to avoid the potential for any violent conflicts. Protesters, who held a rally at the Robert E. Lee-“Stonewall” Jackson Monument at Wyman Park Dell near Johns Hopkins University Sunday, had pledged to tear down that statue themselves Wednesday night if the city didn’t. A group in Durham, N.C., toppled a Confederate statue there on Monday.
“It’s done,” Pugh said Wednesday morning. “They needed to come down. My concern is for the safety and security of our people. We moved as quickly as we could…I did not want to endanger people in my own city.”
It remains unclear where the statues will go after their removal. Pugh had previously suggested moving them to Confederate cemeteries, but Rose Hill Executive Director Colleen Rafferty said she has not been contacted about acquiring the statues and is "not interested" in having them. Hill said she is concerned about protests and disruptions following the monuments wherever they go.
Many people came to take photos of the vacant pedestals where the Confederate monuments once stood, exchanging handshakes, hugs, and high-fives.
