WASHINGTON (BN24) — The Trump administration will reinstall a statue of Confederate general Albert Pike in Washington, D.C., nearly five years after protesters pulled it down and set it on fire during nationwide racial justice demonstrations.
The National Park Service announced Monday that the bronze statue, the only outdoor monument to a Confederate general in the nation’s capital, is being cleaned, repaired, and prepared for reinstallation by October. The agency said the restoration “aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law” and follows President Donald Trump’s March executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history” by reinstating statues removed since 2020.
The Pike statue was toppled on Juneteenth 2020 — the annual commemoration of the end of slavery — when antiracism protesters used ropes and chains to bring it down before setting it ablaze. The action came in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police, which sparked a nationwide reckoning with systemic racism and the removal of more than 300 Confederate monuments across the United States.
At the time, Trump condemned the toppling on social media as “a disgrace to our country” and demanded the immediate arrest of those involved. According to officials, he requested the statue’s restoration just days later. Now, his administration has directed the Department of the Interior to oversee the return of monuments removed since 2020, while also reversing previous Pentagon orders to strip Confederate names from Army bases.
The Pike statue, dedicated in 1901, stood in Judiciary Square, half a mile from the U.S. Capitol. Funded by Freemason groups, it depicted Pike in civilian attire rather than military uniform — a condition set by Congress when approving the monument. Pike, a senior Freemason leader, also served in the Confederate army and has been accused by critics of involvement with the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan — an allegation the Masons dispute.
For decades, the statue was a flashpoint. The D.C. Council formally called for its removal in 1992, and local officials renewed those efforts in 2017. Civil rights activists argued that monuments to Confederate figures were erected to intimidate Black Americans and glorify white supremacy.
The National Park Service’s decision to reinstall the Pike statue comes amid criticism that the agency, under Trump, has altered or removed references to marginalized communities from official sites. Earlier this year, the NPS faced backlash for deleting mentions of transgender history from the Stonewall National Monument website and for ordering reviews of gift shop merchandise deemed “anti-American.”
Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s non-voting delegate in Congress, called the decision “morally objectionable” and pledged to reintroduce legislation to remove the Pike statue permanently and donate it to a museum.
“I’ve long believed Confederate statues should be placed in museums as historical artifacts, not remain in parks and locations that imply honor,” Norton said. “The decision to honor Albert Pike by reinstalling the Pike statue is as odd and indefensible as it is morally objectionable. Pike served dishonorably.”
