The National Park Service announced Monday that it will restore and reinstall a statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general, that was toppled and set on fire on Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the United States, in 2020.
The statue will be restored and replaced by October in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s pushback on recent efforts to reframe America’s historical narrative.
“The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and re-instate pre-existing statues,” the National Park Service said in a news release.
Pike’s statue will resume its previous position in Washington’s Judiciary Square, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. It was the only outdoor statue of a Confederate military leader in the nation’s capital.
“Originally authorized by Congress in 1898 and dedicated in 1901, the statue honors Pike’s leadership in Freemasonry, including his 32 years as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient Rite of Scottish Freemasonry,” the National Park Service added.
“The statue has been in secure storage since its removal and is currently undergoing restoration by the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Training Center.”
Site preparation to repair the statue’s damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, “with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints and mounting elements.”
Cheering demonstrators jumped up and down as the 3.4-metre statue of Pike — wrapped with chains — wobbled on its high granite pedestal before falling backward, landing in a pile of dust on June 19 in 2020, as part of mass protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Protesters then set a bonfire and stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, chanting, “No justice, no peace!” and “No racist police!”
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Trump quickly posted about the toppling on X (then Twitter) in 2020, calling out D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and writing: “The DC police are not doing their job as they watched a statue be ripped down and burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!”
The only statue of a Confederate general, Albert Pike, in the nation’s capital, appears on the ground after it was toppled by protesters and set on fire in Washington on June 20, 2020.
Maya Alleruzzo / The Associated Press
Confederate statues around the United States were toppled in similar protests, while several military bases named for Confederate leaders were renamed.
The Pike statue has been a source of controversy over the years. The former Confederate general was also a longtime influential leader of the Freemasons. Pike’s body is interred at the D.C. headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which also contains a small museum in his honour.
The statue was built at the request of masons who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton called the move by the National Park Service “odd and indefensible” in a statement Monday.
“Pike served dishonorably, misappropriated funds, and was ultimately imprisoned by his fellow troops,” she wrote.
Norton said she would introduce legislation to remove the statue permanently and place it in a museum.
“I’ve long believed Confederate statues should be placed in museums as historical artifacts,” she said, “not remain in parks and locations that imply honor.”
NPS' decision to restore and reinstall the statue of Confederate Albert Pike is indefensible. Pike served dishonorably, misappropriated funds, and was ultimately imprisoned by his fellow troops.
I'll reintroduce my bill to remove the statue.
More: https://t.co/FL0GK9mcBh pic.twitter.com/fCujtes8uA— Eleanor #DCStatehood Holmes Norton (@EleanorNorton) August 4, 2025
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that another statue commemorating the Confederacy would also be returned to Arlington National Cemetery. The statue, which Hegseth referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument,” was removed in 2023.
Hegseth said the Arlington statue “never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history — we honor it.”
I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture — often referred to as “The Reconciliation Monument” — will be rightfully be returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site.
It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike…
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) August 5, 2025
In 2022, an independent commission recommended that the memorial be taken down as part of its final report to Congress on the renaming of military bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy.
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 U.S. South. Some of the figures on the statue include a Black woman depicted as “Mammy” holding what is said to be the child of a white officer and an enslaved man following his owner to war.
An enslaved woman depicted as a ‘Mammy’ on the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 15, 2023, in Arlington, Va.
Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Trump issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” in March. It decried post-Floyd efforts to reinterpret American history, stating, “rather 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.”
The order targeted the Smithsonian network of museums as having “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.” It also instructed the Interior Department to restore any statue or display that was “removed 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.”
— With files from The Associated Press