The statue of Jefferson Davis is the latest Old South figure to be pulled down.
Virginia protesters pulled down a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis Wednesday night in Richmond, the confederacy's capital during the Civil War.
Davis' monument joins several Old South vestiges removed since George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, died at the hands of police officers who knelt on his neck and body as he cried out, "I can't breathe."
Also in Virginia, a 176-year-old slave auction block was removed in Fredericksburg, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy took down a statue in Alexandria.
Demonstrators cheered as the 8-foot bronze statue was toppled by protesters who pulled it down with ropes.
A few blocks away stands a 61-foot-high equestrian statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that the state wants to remove. Gov. Ralph Northam last week ordered its demise, but a judge on Monday blocked such action for at least 10 days.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney tweeted Thursday that other Confederate statues will come down, but asked protesters to refrain from doing so themselves so that professionals could safely dismantle the heavy monuments.
It was not clear what would happen to the Davis figure, which was towed away. “He never deserved to be up on that pedestal,” the mayor said. He called Davis a “racist and traitor.”
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