EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - The statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart is covered in graffiti on Monument Avenue, Monday, July 6, 2020, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)RICHMOND, Va. Work crews have begun taking down an enormous monument to Confederate Gen. J.E.B. The Stuart monument is one of several targeted by protesters in Richmond since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 prompted nationwide demonstrations. The Stuart statue has been the last major statue left, other than a massive statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee that's located on state land.

A rope had been tied around the Confederate statue, which has stood since 1891, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, adding that someone urinated on the statue after it was pulled down. Confederate monuments are a major flashpoint in Virginia and elsewhere in the South. Those statues sit on city land, unlike the Lee statue, which is on state property. Thats when a new law goes into effect, which was signed earlier this year by Northam, that undoes an existing state law protecting Confederate monuments and instead lets local governments decide their fate. Wickhams statue stood in Monroe Park, about a mile away from the Lee statue and surrounded by the Virginia Commonwealth University campus.

Protesters sit near the statue of Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, June 3, 2020. As for the Lee statue, Northam and his predecessor, fellow Democrat Terry McAuliffe, have not previously pressed the issue. The statues on Monument Avenue are among the most prominent collection of tributes to the Confederacy in the nation. A statue of black tennis hero Arthur Ashe, a Richmond native, was erected on Monument Avenue in 1996. "The Lee statue was a constant reminder to Black Virginians of racism, dehumanization, and hate that exists and was prevalent throughout our historyA descendant of Lee, the Rev.

The presence of Confederate monuments across the South and elsewhere in the United States has been challenged for years, and some of the monuments targeted were already under consideration for removal. In Charleston, South Carolina, protesters defaced a Confederate statue near The Battery, a historic area on the coastal citys southern tip. The question of Confederate monuments has been especially contentious in North Carolina, where such monuments are generally protected by law. Norfolk is among the Virginia cities that have signaled intent to remove their Confederate monuments. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, protesters spray-painted a statue Saturday of Confederate Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart on Saturday, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.