Toppled Confederate Statue Will Rise Again in Washington

A bronze statue of a Confederate general that was torn off its pedestal in Washington’s Judiciary Square by demonstrators during the civil justice protests in 2020 will be restored and reinstalled, the National Park Service said Monday.

Albert Pike was the only Confederate leader memorialized with an outdoor statue in Washington until it was toppled in the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, which sparked a nationwide reckoning with racism and calls for the removal of monuments to the Confederacy.

But the National Park Service says it’s obligated to restore the Pike statue by executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, including one calling for “restoring truth and sanity to American history” as under well federal preservation law.

“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,” the park service said in a statement announcing its plan.

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