Robert E. Lee’s descendant says taking down Confederate symbols a ‘no-brainer’

https://abcnews.go.com/US/robert-lees-descendant-taking-confederate-symbols-brainer/story?id=71545891


By Allie Yang, Lauren Pearle, and Ashley Schwartz-Lavares
June 30, 2020, 8:41 PM


Rev. Robert Lee IV is the great-great-great-nephew of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and he says that taking down Confederate symbols in public spaces is a “no brainer.”

“I see them as idolatries… They have been created into idols of white supremacy and racism,” Lee told ABC News.

“This is a no brainer. This is an issue of justice and of peace,” he said.

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He said he ultimately came to believe that “there’s no distinction between fighting for your home state, which was ultimately for the state’s right to enslave people."

"Even if he was fighting for his home state of Virginia, he was fighting for the continued enslavement of black people," he said. "That to me is just not something that we can have in our city squares, that’s not something we can have in our schools, that’s not something we can celebrate."