When UVA professor and activist Jalane Schmidt, who has advocated for the removal of the statues and led historical tours recontextualizing them, heard the news last week, she felt a mixture of excitement and sadness. “I wish this could have happened several years ago. We lost three people,” says Schmidt, referring to the deaths of Heather Heyer and two Virginia State Police troopers during the Unite the Right rally. “Things should have never gone this far.”