Confederate monuments are being removed around the country under pressure from those who say they honor a regime that enslaved African-Americans. The pace has increased, however, in the wake of last weekend’s deadly confrontation at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A look at monuments that have been removed, covered up or vandalized in recent days:
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NEW YORK
Plaques honoring Gen. Robert E. Lee were removed from the property of a now-closed Episcopal church in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also called on the Army to rename two streets at nearby Fort Hamilton that honored Lee and Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
The plaques, including one more than a century old, were taken down at St. John’s Episcopal Church because they were “offensive to the community,” said Bishop Lawrence Provenzano of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
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BALTIMORE
Four Confederacy-related monuments were hauled away on trucks under cover of darkness late Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
Mayor Catherine Pugh said she was concerned that such statues might spark violence.
One monument honored Maryland resident Roger B. Taney, the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision denying citizenship to African-Americans.
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
A bronze statue of a Confederate soldier was pulled from its pedestal by protesters Monday night.
The 1924 monument stood in front of a government office building until demonstrators used a rope to pull it down. Four people have been arrested, and authorities plan more arrests.
Gov. Roy Cooper has called for the removal of all Confederate monuments on public property around the state.
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WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA
In another North Carolina town, two Confederate statues were vandalized with spray paint.
Someone also tied a rope around one of the statues in what may have been an attempt to topple it, police said Wednesday. No arrests were immediately made.
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KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE
A 1914 monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers was splattered with paint. Opponents are signing a petition to have it removed from a neighborhood near the University of Tennessee campus.
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BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
A 52-foot-tall obelisk honoring Confederate soldiers and sailors was covered by wooden panels at the mayor’s order. The 1905 monument is in a downtown park.
The cover-up Tuesday prompted a lawsuit by Alabama’s attorney general, who argues that it violates a new law prohibiting the removal of historical structures, including rebel memorials.
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LOS ANGELES
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where many movie legends are interred, removed a 6-foot Confederate monument that was erected in 1925.
The stone and attached plaque were trucked away to storage Wednesday after the cemetery received hundreds of calls and emails requesting its removal.
More than 30 Confederate veterans and their families are buried in the cemetery. Their grave markers will remain.
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SAN DIEGO
The city removed a plaque naming Confederate President Jefferson Davis from a downtown plaza Wednesday.
The plaque honored San Diego as the Western terminus of the Jefferson Davis Highway between Virginia and California. It was presented to the city in 1926 by a state chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
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TAMPA, FLORIDA
A 106-year-old statue of Confederate soldiers will remain on public property unless opponents raise enough money to move it to a private cemetery, officials decided.
The Hillsborough County Commission voted last month to remove the monument but voted Wednesday to do so only if private funds can be raised in 30 days.
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