Robert E Lee: Confederate general statue to be turned into art

A statue of the American Confederate general Robert E Lee that was a focal point in deadly 2017 protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, is to be melted down into a piece of public art.

The statue was removed in July after being a source of contention for years.

It was at the centre of a white nationalist rally four years ago, which led to the death of a woman.

The city council voted 4-0 to give the statue to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

The organisation plans to select an artist for the project, titled Swords Into Plowshares.

"Our hope with 'Swords into Plowshares' is to create something that transforms what was once toxic in our public space into something beautiful that can be more reflective of our entire community's social values," the center's executive director, Andrea Douglas, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"We're giving people opportunities to engage with our own narratives and our own histories. This project offers a roadmap for other communities to do the same."

The statue was a central part of the 2017 Unite the Right rally, which is seen as a defining moment in recent American history.

The rally - which included prominent figures in America's white nationalist and far-right movement - began as a protest against the removal of the statue.

A counter-protester, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed when James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd. He was sentenced to life in prison in June 2019.

Then Republican President Donald Trump came under fire for saying afterwards that there were "very fine people on both sides".

In the same speech he also said neo-Nazis and white nationalists "should be condemned totally".

• What happened in Charlottesville?

• Why the fuss over Confederate statues?

A Virginia Supreme Court ruling in April allowed the city to remove two statues of former Confederate generals.

Two other statues were removed in Charlottesville on the same day as the Lee statue, including that of Confederate Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

A statue of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark alongside their Native American guide Sacagawea was taken down, after descendants of Sacagawea voiced their opposition to her depiction among the men she led an expedition with.