Sen. Tim Kaine (D) has reintroduced legislation to remove the reference to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Arlington House.
The legislation would rename Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery as the Arlington House National Historic Site. Rep. Don Beyer (D), who represents Arlington in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, has introduced companion legislation in the House.
“The names of our national sites hold significance and should honor individuals whom we can all look up to,” Kaine said in a news release. “That’s why I’m introducing this legislation to remove Robert E. Lee’s name from Arlington House.”
Kaine first introduced federal legislation to remove the Robert E. Lee reference in 2022, while Beyer’s efforts date back to 2020.
The National Park Service describes the Arlington House as “the nation’s memorial to Robert E. Lee.”
“It honors him for specific reasons, including his role in promoting peace and reunion after the Civil War,” says a webpage for the site. “In a larger sense it exists as a place of study and contemplation of the meaning of some of the most difficult aspects of American history: military service; sacrifice; citizenship; duty; loyalty; slavery and freedom.”
Located on federal land managed by the National Park Service, it was once a plantation owned by Robert E. Lee where at least 100 enslaved people lived and worked for over 60 years. Their descendants have called for renaming the historic site.
The site was originally named Arlington House when Martha Custis Washington’s grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, built the home as the nation’s first memorial to George Washington. Custis’ daughter, Mary Anna Custis, later married Robert E. Lee and lived in the home until the Civil War.
During the Civil War, the Union Army seized the house as well as the grounds and turned it into a military cemetery. Congress changed the name from “the Custis-Lee Mansion” to “Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial” in 1972.
Kaine said restoring the original Arlington House name, without the Robert E. Lee reference, would “better tell the whole history of the house and reflect our nation’s values.”
Various memorials to Robert E. Lee and other Confederate figures have been removed since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
Robert E. Lee’s statue, one of two representing Virginia in the U.S. Capitol, was removed in 2020. A new statue was unveiled in December 2025 to honor Barbara Rose Johns, whose student-led fight against her segregated Virginia school became part of the Brown v. Board of Education case.
Photo (1) via Arlington House/Facebook
