WASHINGTON — A statue of a Confederate general that demonstrators toppled and burned in Washington, D.C., in 2020 has been reinstalled.
Crews placed the bronze statue depicting Gen. Albert Pike in Judiciary Square on Saturday. Fencing surrounds the statue, NBC Washington video shows. “Area closed. Historic preservation work in progress,” a sign said.
The Department of the Interior said the restoration complies with President Donald Trump’s directives.
“The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic-preservation law and recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and restore pre-existing statues,” a statement by a spokesperson said.
In June 2020, demonstrators used ropes to tear down the statue outside Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. On live TV, they doused the statue in lighter fluid and set it ablaze.
The National Park Service said this summer that the statue was being restored and shared a photo of a worker removing corrosion and paint.
The Pike statue, dedicated in 1901, has been a source of controversy for years. The Confederate general also was a longtime leader of the Freemasons, who revere Pike. It was built at the request of Masons, who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing.
D.C. officials have tried for years to remove the statue. The D.C. Council said it first called for its removal in 1992. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has introduced multiple bills in Congress to get it removed.
One proposed resolution calling for the removal of the statue referred to Pike as a “chief founder of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan.” The Klan connection is a frequent accusation from Pike’s critics and one that the Masons dispute.
“The decision to honor Albert Pike by reinstalling the Pike statue is as odd and indefensible as it is morally objectionable,” Norton said in a statement this summer. “A statue honoring a racist and a traitor has no place on the streets of D.C.”
