MCDONOUGH, Ga. (AP) - A Confederate monument in Georgia was removed overnight on Wednesday by workers who used a crane to pull the figure off its pedestal.
Crews began removing the monument that stood in McDonough Square Tuesday night and finished it off early Wednesday morning, WSB-TV reported.
The Henry County commission voted to remove the statue, which has been a fixture at the site for over 100 years, earlier this month amid the national protests against racism and police brutality.
Multiple law enforcement agencies were present during the removal, where one person was arrested and protesters surrounding the statue were forced off the sidewalks, WAGA-TV reported.
“We were held back, our freedom of speech was held back because they wouldn’t allow us to get off the curb over here,” resident Stanley Layfield told the news outlet.
The removal comes as Confederate statues and other figures many see as symbols of racism continue to be taken down across the United States.
In Georgia, a Confederate monument that stood in the town square of an Atlanta suburb was taken down last month, and another memorial that stood outside a county courthouse in Conyers was removed earlier this month.
A law passed by Gov. Brian Kemp last year protects Confederate symbols, stopping them from being altered or discarded, but local leaders are increasingly taking action anyway after national protests over the death of George Floyd and other Black victims.
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