LEXINGTON, Va.-- Robert E. Lee's name has been stripped from a church in southwest Virginia.
On Monday, the Robert E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church leaders voted to remove the Confederate general's name from the church and return to the original name, Grace Episcopal Church.
Robert Lee was a member at the church when he moved to Lexington after the Civil War. When the church was renamed for General Lee, it caused a rift between the congregation and forced some members to leave the church.
Leaders of the church said discussions about a name change started after white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people in a predominately black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
Rev. Tom Crittenden, Grace Episcopal's rector, said the church felt the name change was necessary after the violence in Charlottesville.
In San Angelo, SAISD has opted to retain Robert E. Lee's name for their middle school on Sherwood Way.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Comments
Hopefully every member of the church will move to a new church..........
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkBenedict Arnold Baptist?
- Log in or register to post comments
Permalink"When the church was renamed for General Lee, it caused a rift between the congregation and forced some members to leave the church."
Nice to know over 100 years later nothing's changed. People are still fighting a war that ended 153 years ago.
- Log in or register to post comments
Permalink.. except that it never really ended, did it?
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkStill pushing fake news. The middle school in San Angelo was never up for a name change.
“I haven’t heard anything on talks of a name change for that school or anything like that….”
The original name for the church is better.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkPost a comment to this article here: