Who Was General Albert Pike? Confederate Statue To Be Reinstalled in DC

Newsweek

2 days ago

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The National Park Service has said it will reinstall a bronze statue of Confederate General Albert Pike that Black Lives Matter protesters pulled down in June 2020.
According to the agency, the restoration of the statue in Washington, D.C., is in line with two executive orders that President Donald Trump signed on March 27: Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful and Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.
Newsweek contacted the National Park Service for comment outside regular business hours.
People film the only statue of a Confederate general, Albert Pike, in Washington, D.C., after it was toppled by protesters and set on fire on June 20, 2020.
People film the only statue of a Confederate general, Albert Pike, in Washington, D.C., after it was toppled by protesters and set on fire on June 20, 2020.
Maya Alleruzzo/AP
Why It Matters
Confederate monuments have long been lightning rods for those campaigning against racial injustice and police brutality. In 2020, Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, swept the country and helped to bring the issue of Confederate monuments into even sharper focus. The plan to reinstall Pike's statue may revive the debate about monuments honoring the Confederacy.
What To Know
Pike was a lawyer, poet and writer who played a major role in developing the judiciary in Arkansas before the Civil War. He was also a prominent Freemason. During the Civil War, he commanded the Confederacy's Indian Territory, raising troops there and exercising field command in one battle, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Pike was commissioned in the Confederate army as a brigadier general, but his wartime career lasted less than two years. His men were accused of scalping Union troops, and he was eventually forced to resign. He received a reprieve from President Andrew Johnson and moved to Washington, D.C., where he died in 1891.
Pike was the only Confederate official to be honored with an outdoor statue in the capital.
The 27-foot bronze and marble monument, which Congress authorized in 1898 and dedicated in 1901, was located near Judiciary Square. It honors Pike's leadership in Freemasonry, "including his 32 years as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient Rite of Scottish Freemasonry," the National Park Service said.
The statue has been in storage since it was pulled down on June 19, 2020, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests, when monuments honoring figures from the Confederate side in the Civil War were targeted.
Trump, then in his first term as president, scolded police in a social media post for not protecting the statue.
The statue is undergoing restoration by the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Training Center.
"Site preparation to repair the statue's damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements," the service said, adding that it is working to reinstall the fully restored statue by October.
Since returning to office, Trump has moved to restore the names of Confederate generals at military bases, reversing an effort to change U.S. military base names honoring Confederate figures.
Questions about the Pike statue in the nation's capital were raised years before it was pulled down.
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat from the District of Columbia, said in response to the National Park Service's announcement that she would reintroduce a bill to have the statue permanently removed.
"I've long believed Confederate statues should be placed in museums as historical artifacts, not remain in parks and locations that imply honor," Norton said. "The decision to honor Albert Pike by reinstalling the Pike statue is as odd and indefensible as it is morally objectionable."
She added, "A statue honoring a racist and a traitor has no place on the streets of D.C."
What People Are Saying
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton said in a news release on Monday: "Pike served dishonorably. He took up arms against the United States, misappropriated funds, and was ultimately captured and imprisoned by his own troops. He resigned in disgrace after committing a war crime and dishonoring even his own Confederate military service."
The National Park Service said in a news release on Monday: "The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation's capital and re-instate pre-existing statues."
What Happens Next
Those opposed to the statue can be expected to raise their voices in the coming weeks before it is due to be reinstalled in October.
This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.