to remove Confederate statues from city!!

The Democratic mayor, Levar Stoney of Richmond, Virginia, invoked his emergency powers on Wednesday to remove multiple Confederate monuments in the city, including a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, from the city's historic Monument Avenue.

Crews spent part of Wednesday afternoon removing the Jackson statue as scores of onlookers watched the monument honoring the late slave owner who fought to preserve slavery begin to come down after standing in the city for more than 100 years. The bronze statue finally came down just before 5 p.m. ET as a thunderstorm drenched the crowd, which had erupted into cheers.

The move by Mayor Levar Stoney, who did not identify the other statues he plans to remove from Richmond -- the former capital of the Confederacy -- comes as a number of cities and states have in recent weeks been removing statues and other symbols that honor Confederate leaders amid a national reckoning with America's racist past.