Judge approves removal of Confederate monument from Arlington Cemetery

Workers at Arlington National Cemetery got back to removing the Confederate Memorial on Wednesday morning after a ruling by U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston. The group Defend Arlington had sued to stop the removal, arguing that doing so would disturb nearby gravesites. After examining the site himself, Alston ruled Tuesday that work may continue—asserting that the cemetery staff were “making every effort to protect and respect the surrounding gravesites.”

Who decided the monument needed to come down? The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act included a clause ordering the removal of all Confederate names and symbols from the Department of Defense. A congressional commission overseeing the process recommended that the memorial to Confederate soldiers be removed. The statue was installed in 1914 and depicts a woman holding a plow stock and a pruning hook standing above the inscription, “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2:4). The cemetery describes the monument as also featuring a “Mammy” character, a black woman holding the child of an officer, and an enslaved man following his master into battle. The office of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the statue will be moved to New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read a report on other Confederate monument removals.