CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) – Workers in Charlottesville are starting to shroud a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in black as a way of symbolizing the city’s mourning for a woman killed after a white nationalist rally earlier this month.
Live video from the scene Wednesday afternoon showed a public works truck near the base of the statue and workers gathered around it with a large black drape. Onlookers took photos and video.
The city council voted early Tuesday morning to drape the Lee statue and another of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson at another nearby park. The vote came during a chaotic meeting packed with irate residents who screamed and cursed at councilors over the city’s response to the rally.
The council meeting was the first since the “Unite the Right” event, which was believed to be the largest gathering of white nationalists in a decade.
Charlottesville resident Heather Heyer, 32, was killed when a car slammed into a crowd protesting the rally. James Alex Fields Jr. has been charged in her death.
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