City Council approved the placement of the statue on Monument Avenue in June 1995. This decision was met with opposition by both black and white people, both objecting to its placement beside statues of Confederate generals. One alternative location, supported by Mayor Leonidas B. Young II, was in the formerly whites-only Byrd Park. On July 17, city council held an eight hour long hearing on the location of the statue, eventually voting 7-0 in favor of the Monument Avenue location. Several council members said that the hearing changed their opinions on the matter, especially comments by Ashe's brother and widow. The groundbreaking was eventually held on August 15. 500 attended the event, and several people raised Confederate flags behind the stage. On January 1, 1996, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published a letter by Moutoussamy-Ashe. In the letter, she argued that the monument "honors Richmond, Virginia, more than it does its son, his legacy, and his life's work." According to Moutossamy-Ashe, her husband had expected the monument to go in front of an African-American sports hall-of-fame. Several days later, Moutoussamy-Ashe reached an agreement with Citizens for Excellence in Public Art, a group led by gallery owner Beverly Reynolds, wherein both parties would help raise $20 million for the envisioned hall-of-fame, and the DiPasquale statue would be moved there upon completion. At this point, CEMA would hold a $1 million international competition to find a better design to be placed at Monument Avenue. The group had raised $200 thousand by the time Richmond City Council shot their plan down. The statue was cast by DiPasquale in Waynesboro, Virginia and shipped to Richmond on a flatbed truck driven by Robbie Drumheller. The statue was placed upon its pedestal on July 3, 1996, and unveiled on July 10. George Floyd protests On July 1, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, Mayor Levar Stoney ordered all statues to Confederate generals on city property taken down; as a result, the only statue remaining on Monument Avenue is that of Ashe. On July 16, the pedestal of the monument was vandalized with spray paint reading "White Lives Matter" and "WLM." A man claiming to be the vandal spoke to passers-by, saying "You put it on our statues, I'll put it on yours." Ashe's family gave the city of Richmond permission to remove the statue if this was needed to protect it from further harm; this was initially misreported