The Lee Statue in Charlottesville: from Tulips to Terror in a few short years

Occupy Charlottesville protesters occupied Lee Park in 2011, and while that created a lot of local controversy, the Lee statue loomed quietly over the affair. photo: Dave McNair/The Hook

By David McNair

Now that the symbolism of the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia has literally exploded into our consciousness, it’s easy to forget how blind we were to it just a short time ago. The truth is, only a few years before the idea of removing the Lee statue became an issue, you’d have been hard pressed to find many people in town, especially white people, who thought of the statue as being even remotely controversial. In fact, if you’d of made an argument that it was controversial you’d have likely been causally dismissed. Even worse, you might have even been confronted with bigotry and ignorance. For example, take a look at some of the public comments at a City Council meeting in February 2015 that were politely allowed during a debate on whether or not to celebrate Lee/Jac…