The statue of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was covered in Charlottesville on Wednesday(Mark Wilson)
Two Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Va., were covered with a black tarp on Wednesday as the city mourns the death of a woman killed protesting a white nationalist rally.
Workers in cherry pickers shrouded the monument of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park before moving on to the statue of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in nearby Justice Park.
Some of the onlookers cheered, and Jame Dyer said, “It’s a good start. They do have to go, but it’s a start, and I’m glad the city has finally recognized it has to happen on some level.”
Not everyone was pleased, however. John Miska, who had a gun strapped to his leg approached the Lee statue and began cutting the tarp with a knife, the Daily Progress reported.
Police asked him to stop, and Miska complied before he addressed the crowd and called the covering a “desecration”.
He pointed to Lee and said, “We need him to be here so that we can point at him and say he fought for the side that lost.”
The city council voted to cover the statues after residents packed the chamber, screaming and cursing the councilors for their response to the rally.
Neo-Nazis, KKK members, skinheads and other white nationalist factions descended on Charlottesville on Aug. 12 for the Unite the Right rally.
James Alex Fields Jr. allegedly drove his car into a crowd of demonstrators, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer who was there to protest the event.
The rally was first sparked by the city council’s vote earlier this year to take down Lee statue.
Mayor Mike Signer hugs life long resident Aaliyah Jones in front of the newly covered statue Jackson(Mark Wilson)
A judge issued an injunction preventing the city from removing it, and a hearing is schedule for Sept. 1.
The Charlottesville rally and the deadly violence that broke out has renewed the debate over Confederate monuments and their prominence around the country.
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