Richmond, Virginia, removes last Confederate statue

Virginia's capital of Richmond has removed its final city-owned Confederate monument after an ongoing legal battle to take down the statue of Gen. A.P. Hill.

Workers on Monday began the process to remove the statue of Hill, who died near the end of the Civil War, according to The Center Square news website. Hill's remains are buried underneath the statue and will be reinterred in a cemetery, city officials said.

The former capital of the Confederacy, Richmond removed multiple city-owned statues on Monument Avenue following the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020. Statues of Confederate Gens. Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee have also been removed by the city.

Richmond Circuit Court Judge David Eugene Cheek Sr. rejected a plea last week from four indirect descendants of Hill to stop the city's plans to remove the statue, according to The Associated Press.

The descendants argued that they have control over the statue and it should be placed in Cedar Mountain Battlefield rather than a museum.