Work crews took down four Confederate monuments in Baltimore, Md., overnight into Wednesday, days after white nationalists led a deadly protest over the planned removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville.
A monument to both Robert E. Lee, commander of the pro-slavery Confederate army in the American Civil War, and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, a Confederate general, was dismantled from Wyman Park Dell after the city council on Monday approved the removal of four statues, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Crews also removed the Confederate Women’s Monument, a monument to Confederacy soldiers and sailors, and a statue of Roger Taney, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who delivered a landmark 1857 ruling that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African-Americans.
“Following the acts of domestic terrorism carried out by white supremacist terrorist groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, this past weekend, cities must act decisively and immediately by removing these monuments,” Brandon Scott, who’s on Baltimore city council, wrote in a resolution calling for the removal of the statues, according to the Sun.
Last Saturday, a rally by white nationalists protesting plans to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee sparked clashes with anti-racism demonstrators in Charlottesville.
The rally turned deadly when a car rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring 19 other people.
Saturday’s violence appears to have accelerated the drive to remove memorials, flags and other reminders of the Confederate cause across the United States.
