Black Lives Matter protesters at the University of Virginia targeted a statue of Thomas Jefferson on Tuesday night.
The monument, which sits just in front of the rotunda on the university’s main quad was cloaked in black and decorated with signs that said ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘TJ is a racist’.
Roughly 100 students were at the protest and helped adorn the statue, all the while chanting ‘No Trump, no KKK, no racist UVA,’ according to the Washington Times.
The protest came on the month-anniversary of the violent and deadly Unite the Right demonstration in Charlottesville over plans to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee.
The statue of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia was cloaked in black and decorated with signs that said ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘TJ is a racist’ by a group of protesters Tuesday night
Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819, and so his statue sits in the center of the main quad in front of the rotunda
‘One month ago, we stood on the front lines in downtown Charlottesville as all manner of white supremacists, neo-Nazis an neo-fascists swarmed the area,’ a speaker said to the crowd, according to the Daily Progress.
‘Two months ago, the Ku Klux Klan rallied in their safe space, fully robed and fully protected by multiple law enforcement agencies who brutalized and tear-gassed peaceful counter-protesters.’
The rally was organized as a response to the university denying requests last month by the Black Student Alliance to ban white supremacists from campus and remove all Confederate plaques on the rotunda.
‘We can and must condemn the violence of one month ago and simultaneously recognize Jefferson as a rapist, racist and slave owner,’ the speaker, who was not identified, said at the demonstration.
‘The visibility of physical violence from white supremacists should not take our attention away from condemning and disrupting more “respectable” racists that continue to control the structures that perpetuate institutional racism.’
The rally was organized as a response to the university denying requests last month by the Black Student Alliance to ban white supremacists from campus and remove all Confederate plaques on the rotunda
Roughly 100 students were at the protest and helped adorn the statue, all the while chanting ‘No Trump, no KKK, no racist UVA,’ according to the Washington Times
The University of Virginia has not yet responded to the demands of the protesters or commented on the statue’s shrouding.
Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in 1819 and was on the original governing board along with James Madison and James Monroe.
He also was the author of the Declaration of Independence and is widely considered to be one of the country’s most important founding fathers.
Jefferson did, however, also leave behind a legacy of racism, characterized by his ownership of roughly 175 slaves and belief that blacks were the inferior race.
The protest came on the month-anniversary of the violent and deadly Charlottesville demonstration over plans to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee. Pictured a man makes a slashing motion across his neck towards counter protesters of the alt-right rally last month
Pictured is the Unite the Right rally on August 12 that resulted in the death of counter protester Heather Heyer, who was mowed down by a white supremacist who drove his car through the crowd
There are currently 718 confederate statues and monuments in the United States- and 300 are in either Georgia, Virginia, or North Carolina, according to a study by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
On August 12 there was a violent clash between a group of white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville.
The Unite The Right group showed up to protest the removal of confederate general Robert E Lee, which was commissioned in 1917 and built in 1924 – nearly 60 years after the end of the Civil War.
The protest ended when a white supremacist drove his car through a crowd of counter protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.