A statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee will be removed in Richmond, Virginia, as part of the aftermath of the country's racial injustice protests, in plans due to be announced by the state governor.
Governor Ralph Northam will direct the statue to be moved off its massive pedestal in Monument Avenue and put into storage while his administration seeks input on a new location, according to an official.
The move comes amid turmoil across the nation and around the world over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes.
The Lee statue is one of five Confederate monuments along Monument Avenue in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. It has been the target of vandalism during protests in recent days over Mr Floyd's death.
Other tragedies in recent years have prompted nationwide soul searching over Confederate monuments, which some people regard as inappropriate tributes to the South's slave-holding past. Others compare monument removals to erasing history.
This Tuesday, June 2, 2020 file photo shows a large group of protesters gather around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee Source: AP
Confederate memorials began coming down after a white supremacist killed nine black people at a Bible study in a church in South Carolina in 2015 and then again after a violent rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017.
