The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that previously stood in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, was secretly melted down.

The statue was the focal point of the “Unite the Right” rally in 2017.

It appears someone tipped off The Washington Post about the statue’s desecration.

The mainstream outlet gained ‘exclusive’ access to the process of melting down the statue.

“Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue has met its end, in a 2,250-degree furnace. The divisive Confederate monument, the focus of the deadly ‘Unite the Right’ rally in 2017, was secretly melted down and will become a new piece of public art,” The Washington Post wrote.

“The statue’s defenders more recently sought to block the city from handing over Lee to the Charlottesville’s Black history museum, which had proposed a plan to repurpose the metal. In a lawsuit, those plaintiffs suggested the monument should remain intact or be turned into Civil War cannons. But on Saturday the museum went ahead with its plan in secret at this small Southern foundry, in a town and state The Washington Post agreed not to name because of participants’ fears of violence,” the outlet added.

WATCH:

CBS 19 News reports:

The statue of Robert E. Lee that once stood in downtown Charlottesville has finally met its fiery fate.

According to a report in The Washington Post, the statue, which had already been cut up into several pieces, was melted down on Saturday. The name and location of the foundry where the melting took place was kept secret because of fears of retribution.

Charlottesville’s plans to remove the statue led to a Ku Klux Klan rally in July of 2017 as well as the violent Unite the Right rally a month later where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed.

The statue was removed from Lee Park (now Market Street Park) in 2021, but plans to do anything with it remained in limbo until lawsuits filed by the statue’s defenders had been cleared up.

Andrea Douglas, the executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and Jalane Schmidt, a University of Virginia religious studies professor, lead the Swords into Plowshares project, which will repurpose the metal into a more inclusive work of art.

“I am a native Virginian who finds this act repulsive. The momentary euphoria associated with the destruction of a historical monument will only serve to ignite racial hatred and animosity among people who have been neutral,” Dr. Carol M. Swain wrote.

Whether you like or dislike a historical figure, destroying a country’s history is a Marxist tactic.

Per Fox News:

The Washington Post reported that “Swords Into Plowshares,” a project led by University of Virginia religious studies professor Jalane Schmidt and Charlottesville’s Black history museum executive director Andrea Douglas, “will turn bronze ingots made from molten Lee into a new piece of public artwork to be displayed in Charlottesville. They made arrangements for Lee to be melted down while they started collecting ideas from city residents for that new sculpture.”

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The Post went on to say that due to “past threats” and “worries about legal action” the project went to great lengths to keep itself secret until now. The article made note that Schmidt, “who directs the Memory Project at U-Va.’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, said she felt like she was preparing for an execution of sorts,” and quoted her comparing the destruction of the monument to putting down a rabid dog that has been harming people.

“Still, that dark feeling was better than carting Charlottesville’s ‘White supremacist toxic waste’ away to some other community,” The Post wrote.

“It’s a better sculpture right now than it’s ever been,” one of the metal-casters said. “We’re taking away what it meant for some people and transforming it.”

According to Chris Menahan of Information Liberation, Lee Park in Charlottesville (now Market Street Park), where the Robert E. Lee statue once stood, is now a “homeless encampment.”

“Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, which had its name changed to Market Street Park and a giant statue of Robert E. Lee removed in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right rally, is now a dangerous homeless encampment,” Menahan wrote earlier this month.

WATCH:

CBS 19 News reported this week that the homeless encampment is gone.

The homeless encampment at Market Street Park is gone. On Monday, the park looked the same as it did a month ago, before City Manager Sam Sanders lifted the curfew.

Police helped the people camping in the park move out on Saturday, and they were all somewhere else two hours before curfew kicked in at 11:00 p.m.

Parks and Recreation cleaned up the park and planted grass where tents created bare spots.

Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook said the homeless encampment was a short-term solution.

Many people who had camped in the park still spent time in the park during the day.

Snook said opening PACEM Saturday made clearing the park a smooth process.

“If we could give them a place that was dry and warm and safe and sanitary, that was preferable and once we were able to provide that place, folks realize that’s where we’d rather be,” he said.

But, PACEM is only open through April.

“We need a long-term answer that includes a 24/7 shelter. That includes wraparound services for mental health for drug addiction for job counseling and things like that,” Snook said.

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