RICHMOND, Va. – A state panel tasked with recommending a replacement for Virginia’s Robert E. Lee statue at the U.S. Capitol will hold a virtual public hearing on the matter next month.
The panel, created by the General Assembly earlier this year, has set a Nov. 17 hearing, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday. The public can also weigh in by email or mail through Nov. 27.
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Following the public hearing and the end of the public comment period, the Department of Historic Resources will present the panel with a list of five finalists. Then the commission will pick the honoree at a virtual meeting in December.
The panel voted in July to take down the Lee statue in the National Statuary Hall and replace it with the to-be-determined Virginian. The Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond will take the Lee statue.
Among the most frequently suggested individuals so far is Barbara Johns, the newspaper reported. She is the schoolgirl who led the walkout at Farmville’s Moton High School in 1951 to protest the students' substandard segregated school facilities. The Farmville case lead to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that found officially segregated public schools unconstitutional.