UGA group removes portrait of Robert E. Lee

A University of Georgia student group voted late Thursday to remove a portrait of Robert E. Lee from its hall.

The Demosthenian Literary Society voted 27-0 with one abstention to take down the portrait of Lee, who served as a general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, said Alanna Pierce, a first-year UGA law student who is the society’s president.

Pierce said the 40-member society, an oratory group created in 1803, decided to remove the portrait after the recent racially-charged violence in Charlottesville, Va. that has renewed a national debate over monuments to Confederate leaders.