National Cathedral's Confederate-themed stained glass to be replaced with racial justice imagery to "tell the truth" of country's past

Washington National Cathedral announced Thursday that the new stained glass windows in its main worship space will highlight racial justice in an effort to "tell the truth" about the country's past. The original windows, which featured Confederate imagery, were removed in 2017 following the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

The two former windows, which were located on the southern face of the main worship space, featured Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. They were installed in 1953, and first faced calls for their removal in 2015 after the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The cathedral created a task force, and after the 2017 Charlottesville rally, cathedral officials deconsecrated and permanently removed the Confederate images.

Cathedral Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde said at the time that the windows are "inconsistent" with the cathedral's mission and is a "barrier to our important work on racial justice and racial reconciliation."