A statue of Confederate General James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart is being removed in Richmond, Virginia.
Richmond, the former Confederacy capital, and still the state's capital city, has removed three Confederate statues in the past week.
Calls for the removal of the statues comes after protests in Virginia and around the United States after the death of George Floyd sparked a movement to remove statues and monuments to those in history with connections to slavery and the Confederacy, saying they represent markers of oppression and injustice.
The statue of J.E.B. Stuart, who served as commander of the Cavalry Corps for the Confederacy in northern Virginia, depicts him in uniform on a horse, armed with a sword. The statue includes many words of praise for Stuart, including one line that reads, "He gave his life for his country and saved his city from capture."
Protesters tried to pull down the Stuart statue June 21 using ropes, but police shut down these attempts by declaring an unlawful assembly. Today, the city has sent crews in a cherry picker to remove the statue from its base and drive it away.
On July 1, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney promised to remove all Confederacy statues from the city.
After Stuart's statue is removed, the only other remaining Confederate statue on Virginia state land will be General Robert E. Lee. The statue is set to be removed, but a number of lawsuits have temporarily prevented this.
Stoney is ordering the removal of these statutes through his acting role as the city's emergency mayor, saying if he did not remove the statues, they would constitute a threat to public safety.
