Descendants of slave owner asked for his recently-toppled statue to be removed in 2017

Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Va.
(Image credit: Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images)

Blood is thicker than water, but it's got nothing on stone.

Amid nationwide protests against systemic racism, there have been revived discussions on the legitimacy of statues honoring racist figures of the past. In Richmond, Virginia, two such statues met their demise earlier this month when protesters toppled figures of Christopher Columbus and Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham.

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Marianne Dodson

Marianne is The Week’s Social Media Editor. She is a native Tennessean and recent graduate of Ohio University, where she studied journalism and political science. Marianne has previously written for The Daily Beast, The Crime Report, and The Moroccan Times.