"Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson will be removed from the CUNY hall of great Americans because New York stands against racism," Cuomo tweeted. "There are many great Americans, many of them New Yorkers worthy of a spot in this great hall. These two confederates are not among them."
Busts of Lee and Jackson - best known for leading a seditious war against the Union - are featured in the hall alongside prominent black Americans such as inventor George Washington Carver and baseball great Jackie Robinson. Lee was inducted in 1900 and Jackson in 1955.
Cuomo's announcement comes as municipalities across the country are removing statues dedicated to the Confederacy in response to the violent Virginia white power rally last week where a neo-Nazi rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, killing one and injuring 19 others.
The city of Baltimore took down monuments to Lee, Jackson and pre-Civil War Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote the majority decision in the Dred Scott Case, ruling that the descendants of slaves were not US citizens.
Birmingham, Alabama, has covered a 52-foot-tall obelisk dedicated to Confederate soldiers while the city determines whether to permanently dismantle it.
And the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island removed a plaque dedicated to Lee from outside a Brooklyn church on Wednesday.
Cuomo has also asked the secretary of the US Army to rename streets in Brooklyn's Fort Hamilton section named for Lee and Jackson, who were stationed there before the Civil War.
Comment: