Virginia protesters target Confederate statues

Demonstrators in Richmond, Va., cheered late on Wednesday night as city workers hauled away a torn-down monument of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The protesters had toppled the statue from its pedestal on Monument Avenue just before 11 p.m. EDT. About 80 miles away in Portsmouth, protesters danced to a marching band while others beheaded and pulled down four statues that were part of a Confederate monument there.

Why are protesters targeting statues? Since the death of African American George Floyd in police custody two weeks ago in Minneapolis, demonstrators have demanded the removal of Confederate monuments, arguing that they glorify former leaders who led a rebellion that upheld slavery. The vandalism in Portsmouth followed the city council’s decision to delay moving the monument. On Tuesday, protesters in Richmond set fire to a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into a lake.

Dig deeper: Read Lynn Vincent’s analysis of the logic behind riots.