Monument honoring abolition of slavery unveiled in Richmond two weeks after Robert E. Lee statue was removed
CNN
A monument honoring the abolition of slavery was dedicated on Wednesday in Richmond, Virginia, just two miles from where a hulking statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee once prominently stood.
People in the audience wore plastic ponchos or sat under large golf umbrellas for protection from the rain, which ended a few minutes before dignitaries unveiled the Emancipation and Freedom Monument.
The monument, featuring two 12-foot-tall statues of a man and a woman holding an infant after they were freed from slavery, honors the contributions of Black Virginians in the "centuries-long fight for emancipation and freedom," according to the Virginia Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission, which commissioned it.
The United States and 16 other countries whose citizens were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 are set to release a joint statement Thursday calling on Israel and Hamas to come to an agreement on the most recent ceasefire and hostages proposal, according to a US official – marking the latest move in the Biden administration’s push to bring to an end the Israel-Hamas war.