After working for hours to lift the statue of Robert E. Lee off its pedestal in Oak Lawn Park also known as Lee Park, workers stopped when a judge issued an injunction against removal. A hearing will be held on Thursday morning to decide the statue’s fate.
Earlier today, Sept. 6, the Dallas City Council voted 13-1 to remove the statue.
Dozens of police, including tactical squad, flooded the park to prevent trouble. Barriers were placed in a wide circle around the statue awaiting a council vote. A heavy duty crane capable of lifting the six-ton monument with a heavy-duty trailer to haul it to a secure location were also moved on site.
Once the city council voted, hundreds of people flocked to the park to watch the removal.
Although crews had a plan in place to remove the statue, they weren’t given two vital pieces of information, according to city spokesperson Monica Cordova. When the monument was placed in 1936, it should have simply been placed on its pedestal. That was the practice during the Depression. Instead, after the crane tried to lift it several times, they learned from a member of the Lee Park Conservancy that the statue was bolted down and cemented into place.
The crew worked for more than an hour to saw off the bolts. They loosened the statue from its base with crowbars.
Word of the injunction came at about 4:30 p.m. and work stopped about 10 minutes later. The crew seemed to be continuing its work to loosen the statue from its base. Work obviously stopped, however, a few minutes later when the sling hanging from the crane secured under the horses bellies loosened.
Most of the crowd was happy to see the monument go, although when word of the injunction passed through the crowd, several people cheered. A few racists did drive down Hall Street to taunt the crowd watching removal. One driver blasted “Dixie” at he passed. A motorcyclist in a Nazi helmet shouted epithets as he rode by.
Removal will cost the city about $400,000. The delay including court costs will add to that amount.
Most people in the crowd like that Dallas didn’t try to removal the monument unannounced and at night. Others cursed the damn bolts. Had the statue not been bolted down, it would have been gone before the injunction was issued.
The statue was placed in Oak Lawn Park in 1936 and the park renamed at that time. The Dallas Southern Memorial Association, affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan at the time, commissioned and placed the monument.
