Team Henry Enterprises, a Black construction company owned by Devon Henry, has been responsible for removing numerous confederate statues, the New York Times reports.
So far, Team Henry Enterprises has removed 72 monuments. Henry's enterprise is regarded as the top choice to remove the relics of the confederacy in Virginia and other parts of the South. Additionally, Team Henry Enterprises has been awarded more than $100 million in federal contracts for its construction expertise.
While the company's removal work has been championed by many, Henry and his team have been targeted by a pro-confederate contingent.
Henry said that since he’s received threats for removing the the Confederate statues, he now carries a firearm and often wears a bulletproof vest while carrying out his work.
“You start thinking, Damn, was it worth it?” Henry said. “But then there are moments; my daughter, in her interview for college, said I was her hero.”
The racist monuments removal by a Black man and his company are believed to be fulfilling a prophecy that was first given in 1890.
John Mitchell Jr., the editor of The Richmond Planet, a noted Black newspaper, wrote about how a Black man would eventually be the cause of the statue's demise. “He put up the Lee monument, and should the time come, will be there to take it down,” Mitchell wrote.
Following the death of George Floyd, protesters swarmed the streets of Richmond in response to the unjust killing. In the aftermath of the events, Virginia's Gov. Ralph Northam called for the removal of Lee’s statue.
“Nobody would take this job,” said Clark Mercer, the former chief of staff to Northam. “Some of the folks who were asked to take it down were pretty overtly racist with their comments back.”
Henry talked to his family and his staff about the proposal. He recalled that a New Orleans contractor who agreed to remove city monuments had his car destroyed in a fire, and a rally to protest that city’s plan to take down its own statue of Lee led to violent encounters.
After accepting the contract, Henry’s company began taking down "other Confederate statues, cannons, and assorted items from Richmond over the next nine days."
Eventually, they removed Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, including the Lee statue, and the deconstructed the pedestals on which the statues once sat. The Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia now houses the dismantled pieces from the Richmond statues.
Henry credits his success to the lessons he learned from his mother, Freda Thornton.
Thorton went from an entry-level position at McDonald’s to owning five fast-food franchises, and passed on the principles of hard work and achievement to her son.
“I prayed the whole time,” she said. “I thought about my dad. I thought about the people—the shoulders that Devon stood on, to do the job he was doing.”
To commemorate his team’s work, Henry plans on selling custom-made NFTs depicting 13 of the statues and other artifacts that his team took down. He will donate the money from the sales to social justice organizations.
“They can’t erase what we’ve done,” he said.
