Baltimore removes Confederate statues

Baltimore has removed statues that honored the Confederacy in the city overnight.

Crews worked in Wyman Park starting around midnight Wednesday to remove the Lee and Jackson monument.

They took down the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson early Wednesday after the city council passed a resolution Monday that ordered the immediate destruction of the monuments, WBAL reported.

Credit: Jerry Jackson

Credit: Jerry Jackson

The board cited the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia for the quick removal.

"Destroyed. I want them destroyed, and as soon as possible. I want them destroyed," city councilman Brandon Scott said Monday.

The statues may be sent to Confederate cemeteries after Mayor Catherine Pugh reached out to the Maryland Historical Trust for permission to remove the monuments, WBAL reported.

The removal didn't come without cost. WBAL reported Monday that the bill could be between $1 million and $2 million.

Credit: Jerry Jackson

Credit: Jerry Jackson

The city had four monuments to the Confederacy: a Confederate women's monument, a soldiers' and sailors' monument, the Lee and Jackson monument and a statue of Robert Taney, a former Supreme Court Chief Justice who wrote the Dred Scott ruling in 1857, WRC reported.

Baltimore isn’t the only area that is trying to remove its Confederate history.

North Carolina’s governor said he is trying to reverse a law that prohibits the removal or relocation of monuments in the state. Dallas’ mayor is looking at the city’s options. Tennessee’s governor called for the removal of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s bust. Forrest was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Sons of the Confederate Veterans have spoken out about the removal of the monuments across the country.

"These statues were erected over 100 years ago to honor the history of the United states. They're just as important to the entire history of the U.S. as the monuments to our other forefathers," Thomas V. Strain Jr. told WRC.