The mayor of Charlottesville has called for a special session of Virginia's legislature to let localities decide the fate of Confederate monuments like the statue at the centre of a far-right rally last week that turned deadly.
Mayor Mike Signer issued his appeal amid an increasingly contentious debate over what to do with memorials to Confederate figures, who fought for the preservation of slavery during the US Civil War, that are seen by opponents as offensive.
In what has become the biggest domestic crisis of his presidency, Donald Trump has been sharply criticised, including by fellow Republicans, for blaming Charlottesville's violence not only on the white nationalist rally organisers, but also the anti-racism activists who opposed them.
"Whether they go to museums, cemetries, or other willing institutions, it is clear that they no longer can be celebrated in shared civic areas," Signer said in a statement, referring to the statues. "We can, and we must, respond by denying the Nazis and the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and the so-called alt-right the twisted totem they seek."
A 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, was killed and several people were injured when a man crashed a car into a crowd of counter-protesters at last Saturday's rally.
A 20-year-old Ohio man has been charged with her murder. On Friday, he was handed five new felony counts of malicious wounding, with the charges related to serious injuries inflicted on people hit by the vehicle, Charlottesville police said.
Some attendees at the rally were heavily armed, and Signer said in his statement he was also calling for legislation that would let localities ban open or concealed carry of weapons at some public events. And he said he wanted to find a way to memorialise Heyer's name and legacy.
Heyer's mother told a memorial service on Thursday that her daughter's killers tried to silence her. "Well guess what? You just magnified her," Susan Bro told the service.
Signer said that memorial was a profound turning point for him, and that it made him realise the significance of the city's statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee had changed.
"Its historical meaning now, and forevermore, will be a magnet for terrorism," the mayor said in his statement.
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