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Virginia lawmakers vote to remove statue of segregationist

The bill advanced on a party-line vote, with all Republicans on the committee voting against it.
Credit: Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
FILE - House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, talks on a phone as he sits at the feet of the statue of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd at Capitol Square in Richmond, Va. Saturday, March 13, 2010. A panel of Virginia legislators will discuss the removal of a statue of former governor and U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., from the state Capitol grounds. Byrd was a staunch segregationist and the architect of massive resistance against integrating schools.

RICHMOND, Va. — A panel of Virginia lawmakers have advanced a bill to remove a statue of Harry F. Byrd Sr., a staunch segregationist, from the state Capitol grounds. 

The decision to advance the bill comes amid a yearslong effort in history-rich Virginia to rethink who is honored in the state’s public spaces. 

Byrd, a Democrat, served as governor and U.S. senator. 

He ran the state’s most powerful political machine for decades until his death in 1966 and was considered the architect of the state’s racist “massive resistance” policy to public school integration. 

The bill advanced on a party-line vote, with all Republicans on the committee voting against it. 

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