A Virginia judge dismissed an argument Monday that Charlottesville violated an open government law with its 2021 vote to give a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to an African American heritage center that plans to melt it down and turn it into a new piece of public art.
The Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation and the Ratcliffe Foundation are seeking an injunction to stop the statue’s destruction and relaunch the bidding process. The two organizations’ bids for the statue failed and the City Council voted to give the monument to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, a local Black history museum. A one-day bench trial is scheduled for Feb. 1.
