Richmond removes remains of Civil War General AP Hill in the name of social justice

The statue of General A.P. Hill will be removed from its prominent spot at a busy intersection in the city's core. Richmond Circuit Court Judge David Eugene Cheek Sr. rejected the motion to delay the removal, which came from four descendants of Hill.

The former Confederate capital began removing Confederate monuments amid the cultural revolution that took place after the death of George Floyd. Statues removed included those of Gen. Stonewall Jackson, one of the Confederacy's most competent generals, who was killed by friendly fire.

The statue of Jackson was moved to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. The process of moving Hill's statue has been made more complicated because his remains were placed underneath the monument in 1891, reports the Associated Press.

Hill's indirect descendants and the city agreed that Richmond's plan to move Hill's remains to the cemetery should go forward, but the descendants say that they should have control over the statue and want it relocated to Cedar Mountain Battlefield near the cemetery, rather than the museum Cheek ruled against them in October of this year.

The city has spent at least $1.8 million removing Confederate monuments, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The monument will be put into storage while the case continues through the appeal process. Judge Cheek ruled that delaying the move would add costs.

Confederate statues have been weeded out of Richmond in recent years after, in some cases, over 100 years of standing tall. Many were erected after the Civil War and throughout the Jim Crow era.