US Army resumes process to remove Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery

Removal of a century-old Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery began Wednesday after a federal judge lifted a temporary injunction that halted the removal process earlier.

U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston had granted a temporary injunction Monday after the group Defend Arlington, an affiliate of Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday and sought the restraining order. The group had argued that the removal of the monument was disturbing gravesites.

Defend Arlington and Save Southern Heritage Florida have filed numerous lawsuits in an attempt to prevent the monument's removal. But after touring the site Tuesday, Alston ruled that the groups' allegations about the removal process “were, at best, ill-informed and, at worst, inaccurate.”

“I saw no desecration of any graves,” Alston said during court Tuesday. “The grass wasn’t even disturbed.”

The monument's removal is part of a national effort to remove or rename monuments and memorials commemorating the Confederacy. The movement has received pushback from some Republican lawmakers, including 44 House Republicans who demanded the Pentagon pause the removal of the monument at Arlington National Cemetery, Fox News reported.

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Arlington National Cemetery says gravesites will be protected

On Wednesday morning, crews began to take down the monument with a crane and harnesses, according to the Washington Post.

Workers had already begun the removal process, which was slated to be completed by the end of the week before it was temporarily paused. Cemetery officials sought to have the injunction lifted quickly, noting that they are required by law to complete the removal by the end of the year and that the workers only have limited availability.

"In accordance with the recent court ruling, the Army has resumed the deliberate process of removing the Confederate Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery immediately," the cemetery said in a statement Wednesday. "While the work is performed, surrounding graves, headstones and the landscape will be carefully protected by a dedicated team, preserving the sanctity of all those laid to rest in Section 16."

Last year, an independent commission recommended the removal of the controversial monument. The monument was unveiled in 1914 and "offers a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery," according to Arlington National Cemetery.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin had disagreed with the removal but made arrangements for it to be moved to land owned by the Virginia Military Institute at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley.

Removal of Confederate monuments, memorials

Hundreds of Confederate statues have been removed from public spaces in the wake of the racial justice protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

The movement then triggered a push for Congress to establish the Naming Commission in 2021, which is tasked to eliminate the Confederacy's legacy in military spaces and recommend names "that would inspire soldiers, civilians, families, the community and the nation," according to retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, vice chairman of the commission. The changes are mandated to take effect by 2024. 

Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Tom Vanden Brook and Sarah Al-Arshani, USA TODAY; The Associated Press