Robert E. Lee Memorial (Roanoke, Virginia)
The Robert E. Lee Memorial is a monument commemorating Robert E. Lee, formerly installed in Roanoke, Virginia's Lee Plaza, in the United States. The stone memorial was approximately tall, and was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the fall of 1960, just as the first two Black students were enrolled in the all-white school system. The monument's erection coincided with the run up to the centennial of the Civil War in 1961. In June 2020, the Roanoke City Council voted to start the legal process to remove the  monument and rename Lee Plaza after the July 1, 2020 date when a new state law removes the prohibition against removing monuments to the Confederate States of America. On just before midnight July 22, 2020, the monument was found to be torn down and broken into two pieces. A 70-year-old man named William Foreman, who was caught vandalizing the monument the night before it was torn down, was arrested on July 24, 2020, and agreed to cooperate with investigators.