Charlottesville removes Confederate statues that helped spark deadly rally

Monuments to Thomas Stonewall' Jackson and Robert E Lee, which had become a rallying point to white supremacists, have been removed

The statue of a Confederate general that helped spark a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017 was removed on Saturday after a long legal battle.

The small Virginia city said the equestrian statue of Gen Robert E Lee and a nearby statue of Gen Thomas Stonewall" Jackson would be removed to storage. Designated public viewing areas for the removals had been established and a small crowd of onlookers cheered as the statue of Lee was hoisted away first, lifted by crane from its stone pedestal and taken away on a flat-bed truck.