The National Park Service announced Monday that the statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate brigadier general and a revered figure among Freemasons, would resume its previous position in Washington\u2019s Judiciary Square, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. It was the only outdoor statue of a Confederate military leader in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
The statue was pulled down with ropes and chains<\/a> on Juneteenth in 2020 as part of mass protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Confederate statues around the country were toppled by similar protests while several military bases named for Confederate leaders were renamed. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A plinth that once held a statue of Confederate general Albert Pike is seen in a park near the headquarters of the Department of Labor on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n A plinth that once held a statue of Confederate general Albert Pike is seen in a park near the headquarters of the Department of Labor on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n The Pike statue restoration, which is targeted for October, \u201caligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation\u2019s capital and reinstate pre-existing statues,\u201d the park service said in a statement.<\/p>\n Arlington\u2019s Confederate Memorial<\/p>\n On social media Tuesday, Hegseth said the Arlington statue \u201cnever should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don\u2019t believe in erasing American history \u2014 we honor it.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, an independent commission recommended<\/a> that the memorial be taken down, as part of its final report to Congress on renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy.<\/p>\n The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. Some of the figures also on the statue include a Black woman depicted as \u201cMammy\u201d holding what is said to be the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.<\/p>\n Restoration is part of a larger narrative<\/p>\n In March, Trump issued an executive order<\/a> entitled \u201cRestoring Truth and Sanity to American History.\u201d It decried post-Floyd efforts to reinterpret American history, stating, \u201crather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.\u201d<\/p>\n The order targeted the Smithsonian network of museums as having \u201ccome under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.\u201d It also instructed the Interior Department to restore any statue or display that was \u201cremoved or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n Pike, who died in 1891, is more known for his decades-long stint as a senior leader of the Freemasons than for his Confederate military career. The Masons lobbied Congress for the right to erect the statue on NPS land in 1901 \u2014 provided that he be depicted in civilian, not military, garb. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n