National Cathedral in DC unveils racial justice-themed windows to replace odes to Confederate generals

The Washington National Cathedral unveiled several racial justice-themed stained-glass windows this past weekend. 

Revealed on Saturday, the four new windows depict people of color marching in protests while holding signs that read, "Fairness" and "No Foul Play." The windows have replaced previous ones honoring Confederate leaders including Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Thomas "Stone Wall" Jackson.

The new windows are now within above the Episcopal Cathedrals’ main worship space.

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The National Cathedral in D.C. unveiled new social justice-themed stained-glass windows over the weekend. (Photo by Bill OLeary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The windows’ artist, Kerry James Marshall, spoke at the dedication ceremony, stating, "Today’s event has been organized to highlight one instance where a change of symbolism is meant to repair a breach of America’s creation promise of liberty and justice for all."

Marshall, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow whose body of work centers on depicting the lives of Black people, added that his windows "reinforce those ideals and aspirations embodied in the Cathedral’s structure and its mission to remind us that we can be better, and do better than we did yesterday, today."

The process to replace the Confederate depictions started years prior when then-National Cathedral Dean Gary Hall called for their removal in 2015. Hall’s request followed the slaying of nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina at the hands of a White supremacist shooter.

At the time, Hall acknowledged that the original windows – some of which contained images of Confederate flags – were installed in 1953 to be a mark of reconciliation between the North and South following the war, however he expressed that times had changed which required their replacement. 

"While the impetus behind the windows’ installation was a good and noble one at the time, the Cathedral has changed, and so has the America it seeks to represent. There is no place for the Confederate battle flag in the iconography of the nation’s most visible faith community," Dean Hall declared.

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The Washington National Cathedral began the process of replacing the windows in 2015.  (Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Cathedral leaders removed the Confederacy-themed windows in 2017, following a White nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that led to the death of a counter protestor.

The windows were deconsecrated and put in storage at the cathedral. Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020, the windows depicting Gen. Lee were loaned to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for an exhibit on the Reconstruction Era.

At the dedication ceremony, current Dean Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith decried the previous windows, saying, "Simply put, these windows were offensive, and they were a barrier to the ministry of this cathedral, and they were antithetical to our call to be a house of prayer for all people."

The reverend added, "They told a false narrative, extolling two individuals who fought to keep the institution of slavery alive in this country. They were intended to elevate the Confederacy, and they completely ignored the millions of Black Americans who have fought so hard and struggled so long to claim their birthright as equal citizens."

The National Cathedral did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The new stained-glass windows at the National Cathedral in D.C. replaced ones that depicted Confederate leaders. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.