The Pentagon has confirmed that a controversial portrait of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which depicts an enslaved man holding his horse, will be reinstalled in the library at West Point military academy. The painting, nearly 20 feet wide, had been displayed since 1952 before being removed in 2020 under a law ordering the removal of Confederate tributes from military installations.
The 2020 law, passed after nationwide protests following George Floyd's death, established a commission to rename bases and review monuments. By 2022, the commission directed West Point to remove all items that 'commemorate or memorialize the Confederacy', leading to the portrait's storage.
Rebecca Hodson, the army's communications director, stated that the academy is prepared to restore historical items to their original places, adding: 'Under this administration, we honor our history and learn from it – we don’t erase it.' The move aligns with President Donald Trump's and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's push to restore Confederate symbols.
Hegseth earlier reinstated Confederate general names at bases like Fort Bragg and Fort Lee, using a loophole to honour different soldiers with the same names. The Lee portrait's return raises questions about compliance with the 2020 law, as West Point officials have not clarified how it will be displayed without violating the legislation.
