By Associated Press - Thursday, August 17, 2017

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - The mayor of Georgia’s oldest city is calling for changes to its 138-year-old monument to Confederate soldiers.

Savannah Mayor Eddie DeLoach asked City Hall staff Thursday to find a way “to expand the story this monument tells to be inclusive of all” Savannah residents. The 48-foot (14-meter) monument was completed in 1879 to honor the Confederate dead.

Violence during a rally by white nationalists in Virginia last weekend has stoked calls to remove Confederate statues across the South. In Georgia, state law prohibits taking down any Confederate monument.

Savannah’s mayor also proposed asking state lawmakers to approve changing the name of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge spanning the Savannah River. The bridge is named for former Georgia Gov. Eugene Talmadge, a segregationist who served in the 1930s and 1940s.

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