The City of Charlottesville will accept offers for its statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson for two more weeks.
The deadline for entities wishing to take possession of one or both of the statues is now Oct. 15.
The city began accepting offers shortly after it voted to remove the two Confederate monuments from downtown parks in June. State law only required the city to keep that offer window open until July 7.
Within weeks of the monuments’ removal, the city had received dozens of offers for the statues. Many were from Confederate groups, like Sons of Confederate Veterans, and historical organizations.
Other offers came from artists and museums wishing to repurpose the statues to show the nation’s history of racism.
The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center was among these initial offerors. The center has said it will not comment on its plans for the monuments unless it receives them.
“There’s no need, in terms of the final disposition, for us to rush or say that the offers that we’ve gotten during that period are the only ones we’ll ever look at,” Michael Payne, a Charlottesville City Council member, said at the time.
In order to qualify to take one or both of the statues, interested groups must describe in detail their plans for the monuments.
City council members have said they do not want to give the statues to any person or group that intends to use them to venerate the Confederacy.
