Virginia evicts Confederate monuments from its state Capitol
RICHMOND, Va. Virginia has removed from its iconic state capitol the busts and a statue honoring Confederate generals and officials. Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat, quietly ordered the Lee statue and busts of generals J.E.B. Designed by Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia State Capitol is the first state capitol to open after the American Revolution and was used as the Confederacys Capitol during much of the Civil War. Like many Confederate monuments, most of those recently removed from Virginia's Capitol were erected decades after the Civil War. A large statue of Byrd, the arch segregationist, sits on Capitol Square and two portraits hanging prominently in the Capitol.