Removal of Confederate Monuments

A petition on change.org calls for the replacement of the "Confederate Monument in Downtown Anderson with a statue of Chadwick Boseman." More than 3,000 people have signed so far.

"With Chadwick Boseman’s early passing, it is important that we honor a true local legend my immortalizing him in stone in front of the courthouse. The Confederate Monument belongs in a museum, but has no right to be displayed there," so the petition, which calls for the old statue not to be destroyed but replaced as it is "beyond time for its retirement."

After a week of protests in Chicago, Chicago's two Christopher Columbus statues were taken down on Friday morning. The statues, located in the Little Italy neighbourhood and in Grant Park, have been "temporarily removed until further notice, according to the office of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

A Colston Arms Pub in Bristol, named after slave trader Edward Colston with the Royal African Company, has temporarily rebranded as 'Ye Olde Pubby Mcdrunkface'. The pub had previously placed a sign outside its doors that read "We are listening. Black Lives Matter."

"There hasn't been a lot of chatter about our name since the statue came down, but I thought we'd be inundated with suggestions. We thought we'd give the pub a temporary name to kick off some discussion about it and get the ball rolling," Paul Frost, Colston Arms' landlord, told Bristol Live. "Myself and pub owners Admiral Taverns are going to listen carefully to people's suggestions before settling on a new name," he added.

On Sunday, the Mississippi state legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate emblem from the state's flag, the last remaining state flag to display the Confederate insignia. The Mississippi House voted 91 in favour and 23 opposed of removal, the Senate vote was 37 to 14. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (R) said he would sign the legislation into law.

Four men have been charged with destruction of federal property by the Justice Department. The complaint alleges that Lee Cantrell, Connor Judd, Ryan Lane and Graham Lloyd had "damaged and attempted to tear down the statue depicting Andrew Jackson located in Lafayette Square" and that "Cantrell was captured on video attempting to pry the statue off its base." According to the DOJ's statement, Judd was arrested on Friday.

Princeton University's board of trustees announced on Saturday that they would remove Woodrow Wilson's name from Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. Wilson served as the U.S. president from 1913 to 1921 and is known for his involvement in the resegregation of multiple agencies of the U.S. government.

"We believe that Wilson's racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school whose scholars, students, and alumni must be firmly committed to combatting the scourge of racism in all its forms," read the statement by the board.

The office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday that the statue of President Theodore Roosevelt at the American Museum of Natural History would be removed. The statue shows an African man and a Native American man standing next to Roosevelt on a horse.

The mayor's office stated that the American Museum of Natural History had asked for the statue's removal as it "explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior" and that the city of New York supports the museum's request as it "is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue".

In a statement on Saturday, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced the removal of all Confederate statues and monuments on Capitol grounds, as "monuments to white supremacy don't belong in places of allegiance, and it’s past time that these painful memorials be moved in a legal, safe way."

Cooper issued a statement on Twitter, writing: "I have ordered the Confederate monuments on the Capitol grounds be moved to protect public safety. I am concerned about the dangerous efforts to pull down and carry off large, heavy statues and the strong potential for violent clashes at the site."