A statue of a Confederate general that was torn down in 2020 during racial injustice protests will be restored in Washington, D.C., the National Park Service has announced.
In June 2020, the Albert Pike statue near D.C. police headquarters was toppled and vandalized by protesters. NBC4 Washington was there when protesters used ropes to pull the statue down.
“Many of these protesters say that the Confederacy represents racism, slavery and here on Juneteenth they are trying to pull down…this statue,” local reporter Shomari Stone said during a broadcast at the time. “People have spray-painted BLM, for Black Lives Matter, they have written Black Lives Matter on it, and they are continuing to try to pull this down.”
Protesters later poured lighter fluid on the statue and set it on fire.
On Monday, the National Park Service said it will restore and reinstall the statue.
“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 service wrote in a press release.
The release cited two executive orders signed by Trump in March, including “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
In this executive order, Trump ordered the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to determine whether, since January 2020, public statues and other monuments “have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology,” and to take action to reinstate these statues as appropriate.
Pike’s statue was dedicated in 1901 and has sat in storage since its removal in 2020. It is currently being restored.
“Site preparation to repair the statue’s damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements,” the National Park Service said.
The service hopes to reinstall the statue by October 2025.
Pike’s statue was vandalized nearly a month after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in Minneapolis after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck.
Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests, some of which turned violent, against racial injustice, particularly police violence against Black Americans.
Journalist Geoff Bennett reported in June 2020 Trump, who was nearing the end of his first term, had moved to reinstall Pike’s statue.
“Two sources tell NBC News that Pres. Trump personally called Interior Sec. Bernhardt and asked the Park Service to put back up the statue of Gen. Albert Pike – Washington, D.C.’s only outdoor Confederate statue, which protesters tore down and set on fire the night of Juneteenth,” Bennett wrote on X.
