Confederate Statue to Be Restored, Returned to DC

Five years after protesters tore it down amid nationwide calls for racial justice, the controversial statue of a Confederate brigadier general is set to return to its original spot in Washington, DC, in October. The National Park Service announced Monday that the statue of Albert Pike will be restored and returned to its plinth, about a mile from the White House, the Washington Post reports. The move, NPS says, aligns with federal mandates for historic preservation and recent executive orders aimed at "beautifying" the capital and reinstating preexisting statues.

Pike's statue, which stood near Judiciary Square, was pulled down by protesters in the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis, and amid nationwide demands to reexamine historic symbols tied to racism and oppression. The DC police did not intervene during the statue's removal, drawing criticism from then-President Trump, who called for the protesters' arrest. Pike had been the only Confederate leader to have a statue in the nation's capital, Politico reports.

Long before 2020, the statue had been the subject of debate. The DC Council urged its removal as early as 1992, and by 2017, it had been repeatedly defaced. Pike, while celebrated within Freemasonry for his decades-long leadership in the organization, is also criticized for his alleged role in the Ku Klux Klan's formation—an assertion Masonic leaders dispute. Notably, even the Scottish Rite, the group responsible for the statue's creation, has expressed no interest in reclaiming it.