The statue had been a rallying point for fascists, including the "Unite the Right" rally in 2017 during which one of them murdered Heather Heyer. For years, anti-racists fruitlessly requested the removal of Confederate statues. Far-right politicians responded with laws prohibiting their removal.

Only after anarchists and other abolitionists used illegal direct action to pull down statues—starting in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina and spreading all around the United States—were liberal politicians forced to remove some of the statues that remained. crimethinc.com/Monuments