Duke University removed a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from its campus chapel early Saturday morning. Lee’s likeness, which was vandalized earlier this week, stood among statues of nine other historical figures related to Methodism, Protestantism, and the American South at the entryway to Duke Chapel, an ecumenical place of worship in Durham, N.C., that has roots in the United Methodist Church. Other men depicted above or beside the entryway include Thomas Jefferson, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, and poet and musician Sidney Lanier, who served in the Confederate army and was assigned to a blockade-running ship along the North Carolina coast during the Civil War. In a letter to the campus community, Duke President Vincent Price said he consulted with faculty, staff, students, and alumni about his decision to remove Lee’s statue. “I took this course of action...
