Confederate statue toppled during Black Lives Matter protests will be reinstalled

The National Park Service is planning to restore and reinstall a statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general and Freemason leader, that was toppled during Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020.

“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 National Park Service said in a statement, pointing to President Trump’s executive order on Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful and the executive order on Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents Washington D.C., said in a statement she would reintroduce a bill to permanently remove the statue.

“The decision to honor Albert Pike by reinstalling the Pike statue is as odd and indefensible as it is morally objectionable,” Norton said. “He resigned in disgrace after committing a war crime and dishonoring even his own Confederate military service. Even those who want Confederate statues to remain standing would have to justify awarding Pike any honor, considering his history.”

The statue of Albert Pike has long been a source of controversy. Before it came down, it was the only statue of a Confederate general in D.C., though the memorial itself does not mention his military service, and Pike is wearing civilian clothes. Instead, the engraved words read, “AUTHOR, POET, SCHOLAR, SOLDIER, JURIST, ORATOR, PHILANTHROPIST and PHILOSOPHER.” The Freemasons dedicated it in 1901 in honor of his leadership.

Pike was born in Boston but settled later in Arkansas. He joined the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party, but he and other delegates walked out of their convention when the party wouldn’t adopt a pro-slavery stance. He became a Confederate general in 1861, working between the Confederacy and native tribes. Histories of the Ku Klux Klan have identified him as a post-Civil War leader of the group, though his involvement and role has been contested.

The D.C. Council tweeted in 2020 that members had been calling for its removal since 1992.

On Juneteenth 2020, protesters pulled the statue down with ropes and then set it on fire.

In response, Trump tweeted: “The D.C. Police are not doing their job as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!”

The park service says it is planning for the statue to be back on its plinth in D.C.’s Judiciary Square neighborhood, just blocks from the National Mall, by October.