The National Park Service will reinstall a statue of a Confederate general in Washington, D.C., that was toppled during the 2020 George Floyd riots.
The restoration and reinstatement of Albert Pike’s statue align with President Donald Trump’s March 28 executive order titled “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” and March 27 executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” according to a statement from the park service. The statue was torn down with ropes on June 19, 2020, in front of the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, then doused in lighter fluid and set ablaze. The damaged statue was taken away and stored by the authorities.
“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,” the park service’s statement said, along with a photo of a worker power washing the statue.
“Site preparation to repair the statue’s damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements,” it concluded.
The statue is set to go back up in October.
In March, Trump ordered the “restoration of Federal public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been damaged or defaced, or inappropriately removed or changed, in recent years.”
In March, he laid out the argument for restoring torn-down statues, alleging a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”
Trump bashed the Biden administration for advancing the “revisionist” and “corrosive ideology.”
“It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,” Trump’s March 28 executive order said.
Pike was a unique figure among Confederate generals, and his statue was likewise unique.
While harboring racist views against black Americans, he was a noted advocate of Native American rights, suing the federal government several times on their behalf and even arguing before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Creek. His Native American connections became useful after the start of the Civil War, when he was enlisted by the Confederate government to recruit Native Americans to its cause.
Pike served as a Confederate envoy to Native American tribes and personally recruited 2,000 for service in the Confederate Army. He became the only white officer to lead an all-Native American force into battle on March 7, 1862, in the Battle of Pea Ridge. He resigned before the end of the year and spent the rest of the war in a civilian capacity as an associate justice in Arkansas. He was pardoned by former President Andrew Johnson after the war.
Though briefly serving as a Confederate general, Pike was best known for his writings and leading role in American Freemasonry. His statue was erected by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, in honor of his influential role in masonry, authorized by Congress in 1898 and dedicated in 1901. Reflecting the purpose of the statue, Pike was depicted in civilian garb. His statue was the only one of a Confederate general in Washington, D.C.
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Historians are divided on several aspects of Pike’s life, especially his views and role in the Confederacy. Among the most hotly debated topics is his alleged involvement in the Ku Klux Klan. Several early historians allege he had a prominent role, while more recent historians tend to believe he was unaffiliated, noting a lack of primary sources showing as much.
The allegations of Pike’s involvement with the KKK played a major role in motivating the rioters who tore his statue down in 2020.