(CNN) Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam will announce on Thursday plans to remove a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue, a move that comes amid a national reckoning with America’s complicated racial history.
Northam, a Democrat, plans to make the announcement during a news event in Richmond, a source in the governor’s office told CNN on Wednesday. The Associated Press first reported Northam’s impending announcement.
The Richmond city government also announced on Wednesday that the city’s mayor and a city council member will — on July 1 — introduce an ordinance to bring down all the Confederate monuments on Monument Avenue in the former capital city of the Confederacy.