Statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general, will return to Washington DC, National Parks Service says
A statue of a general in the Confederate army that was toppled and set on fire during social justice protests in 2020 in Washington DC will be reinstated, the National Park Service (NPS) has announced.
The bronze statue depicting Albert Pike is being restored, the Park Service said in a statement on Monday, sharing a photo of the statue undergoing cleaning to remove corrosion and paint prior to repairs, with a view to reinstalling it by October.
“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,” a statement from the agency said, including an executive order issued by Donald Trump in March calling for “restoring truth and sanity to American history”.
The restoration is just the latest action undertaken by the NPS, faced with unprecedented staff cuts and threats to some $1bn of its federal funding, that falls in line with Trump’s agenda to sanitize and rewrite the country’s history.
