The statue of Albert Pike was toppled and set on fire amid the BLM unrest in 2020
The only outdoor memorial honoring a Confederate general in the US capital has been renovated and re-installed.
The monument to Massachusetts native Albert Pike reappeared in its place on Sunday. It was first dedicated in 1901 by local freemasons in honor of Pike’s service to the fraternity, and stood in Judiciary Square until it was vandalized, pulled down, and set ablaze in June 2020 amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter unrest.
The damaged statue was removed from the scene by the National Park Service (NPS) shortly afterward, while its pedestal was left standing in the square. The base of the monument was covered in pro-BLM graffiti but was cleaned of it after the BLM protests waned.
The agency announced plans to reinstall the statue back in August, citing US President Donald Trump’s executive order on ‘Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful’ and the order on ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History’.
“The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and reinstate pre-existing statues,” the NSA said at the time.
The re-erection of Pike’s statue has been harshly criticized by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat representing the district in Congress, who had introduced a bill demanding the permanent removal of the monument upon the initial NPS announcement.
She slammed the return of the statue as “an affront to the mostly Black and Brown residents of the District of Columbia.” She also claimed the reinstallation of the monument was “offensive to members of the military who serve honorably,” pointing to Pike’s turbulent career fighting for the rebellious South.
“Pike himself served dishonorably. He took up arms against the United States, misappropriated funds, and was ultimately captured and imprisoned by his own troops,” Norton asserted. “Confederate statues should be placed in museums as historical artifacts, not remain in parks or other locations that imply honor. Pike represents the worst of the Confederacy and has no claim to be memorialized in the nation’s capital.”
