discussion point in the city around the times of its commission and its unveiling. Many of the city's residents cited Ashe's distinguished place in the modern history of the city as a reason for inclusion, while some residents and other parties rejected it as inappropriate for Monument Avenue, which had contained only statues of men with a relationship to the Confederate States of America. Ashe's statue was the farthest one placed on the Avenue, situated in what is known as the Museum District, just west of the city's Fan district. Ashe stands, racket in hand, on a pedestal bearing the Biblical quote: “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Controversy The Confederate memorials on Monument Avenue have been a source of controversy from time to time since they were first built. Opponents have pointed to their roots in the "Lost Cause" and Virginia's "Massive Resistance" to racial integration of public schools to argue that the statues symbolize white supremacy and should be removed or revised. Proponents of preservation recognize the monuments as veterans' memorials erected to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of Confederate soldiers and citizens who died fighting to defend Richmond during the Civil War. The removal movement gained momentum following a similar controversy with Charlottesville, Virginia's Robert E. Lee statue and the subsequent events of the "Unite The Right" rally on August 11–12, 2017. In late 2017, Mayor Levar Stoney announced the formation of a "Monument Avenue Commission" that was chartered to solicit the public's input and ultimately provide recommendations on the future of the monuments. In mid-2018, the Commission issued its recommendations, calling for the removal of the Jefferson Davis monument while expressing a desire to attach signage "reinterpreting" the Lee, Jackson, Stuart and Maury monuments. During the 2020 protests that erupted after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the statues again became a focal point in Richmond. They became a frequent site for both peaceful as well as violent protests. Throughout this period, the statues were covered in graffiti and surrounded with materials such as signs, artwork, candles, and flowers. Richmond-based artists, Dustin Klein and Alex Criqui created Reclaiming the Monument, a series of light projections that transformed the Confederate statues at night, in