In the early hours of Wednesday, Baltimore city officials quietly removed statues and memorials honoring Confederate generals throughout the city.
Baltimore journalists reported the removal of the statues, done by crane and city workers while Mayor Cathy Pugh looked on.
Quite a powerful scene here in Baltimore at 2:40 AM. pic.twitter.com/2Rn4IDDMVT
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) August 16, 2017
Daughters of Confederacy monument on Mt Royal coming down pic.twitter.com/XZarWD4IKZ
— Baynard Woods (@baynardwoods) August 16, 2017
Baltimore mayor Cathy Pugh steps out of SUV to watch as crane prepares to lift Confederate monument in dead of night. pic.twitter.com/AN6vQRrFRt
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) August 16, 2017
Taney monument gone pic.twitter.com/wJFY53sPxj
— Baynard Woods (@baynardwoods) August 16, 2017
For those just waking up, here's what happened in Baltimore: the city's dead-of-night removal of all four of its Confederate monuments. pic.twitter.com/gaquP2hlqN
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) August 16, 2017
Baltimore's statues and memorials include the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue, the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway, the Roger B Taney Monument on Mount Vernon Place, and the Robert E Lee and Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson Monument in the Wyman Park Dell, according to The Guardian.
This morning's statue removals follow a weekend of violence in Charlottesville, Va., centered on the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. On Monday, the Baltimore city council voted to remove and destroy the statues. That process took nearly immediate effect, in the middle of the night Tuesday and early Wednesday.
In early 2016, a commission appointed by then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had recommended that the statues of Roger B. Taney and Lee and Jackson be removed.
More as this story develops.
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