
People have been tearing down controversial statues and monuments across the US in response to nationwide protests and conversations surrounding racial inequality.
Many Confederate statues, which some consider racist symbols of America's dark legacy of slavery, have been removed. And statues of Christopher Columbus, another controversial figure in US history, are also being taken down.
Here's where statues are coming down:
- Alabama: Demonstrators at Linn Park attempted to remove a 115-year-old monument during a protest on May 31. Mayor Randall Woodfin told demonstrators he would "finish the job" for them, though he did not specify when exactly the monument would come down. At the University of Alabama, the Board of Trustees and the university's president authorized the removal of three plaques on the campus that commemorate University of Alabama students who served in the Confederate army and members of the student cadet corps involved in defending the campus. The city of Mobile removed the statue of Confederate Adm. Raphael Semmes from downtown and took it to a secure location. In Montgomery, demonstrators tore down a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that stood in front of Lee High School in Montgomery on June 1, according to CNN affiliate WSFA.
- California: A statue of Christopher Columbus will be removed from California's state capitol in Sacramento, lawmakers said. In Chula Vista, a different Columbus statue was moved by the city to storage, citing public safety concerns hours before a planned protest to push for its removal, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. And in Sacramento, a statue honoring John Sutter, the explorer and colonizer who spurred the California Gold Rush was removed from outside an eponymous local hospital.
- Florida: Crews in Hemming Park in downtown Jacksonville took down a 122-year-old statue and plaque that honored fallen Confederate soldiers.
- Kentucky: The John Breckenridge Castleman monument, a statue of a Confederate soldier in the heart of downtown, was removed in Louisville. In Frankfort, the Jefferson Davis statue that stood in the Kentucky Capitol rotunda was removed.
- Massachusetts: Officials removed the Columbus statue located in the city's North End last week after it was beheaded.
- Minnesota: At the State Capitol, a group of people at a rally tossed a rope around a statue of Columbus and tugged it to the ground, CNN affiliate KMSP reported.
- New Mexico: Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller condemned the violence that led to a shooting at yesterday’s demonstration and announced at a news conference that the city will be removing the statue of Juan de Oñate that sparked the protest.
- Tennessee: A controversial statue of Edward Carmack, a former US senator and newspaper owner known for attacking civil rights advocates like Ida B. Wells, was carried off the city's Capitol grounds, according to CNN affiliate WKRN.
- Virginia: In Richmond, protesters vandalized the Columbus statue, tore it down, and threw it into a lake in the park. Protesters in Richmond also brought down the statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. A statue of a soldier known as Johnny Reb was lifted off its pedestal and taken away in Norfolk. Protesters in Portsmouth partially dismantled the town's Confederate monument. Crews in historic Old Town Alexandria removed a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier named "Appomattox."