The statue is the latest target in a series of controversial landmark removals.

On Wednesday night, during a protest in Richmond, Virginia against racial discrimination and police brutality, a statue of Jefferson Davis was torn from its foundation and splattered in paint. As Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederate State of America during the American Civil War, his statue is viewed as a symbol of division and racism. Richmond police squads responded to the incident, but no additional damage occurred, and nobody was injured.

The removal of this statue is the latest in a series of removals of controversial statues, monuments, and landmarks around the country, with other incidents occurring in Alabama, Minnesota, and Boston. The day prior to this statue’s toppling, also in Richmond, a statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down with ropes, then dragged and thrown into a nearby lake. Prior to this incident, the Richmond Indigenous Society tweeted “we are gathering at Byrd Park to protest yet another racist monument. Christopher Columbus was a murderer of Indigenous people, mainstreaming the genocidal culture against Indigenous people that we still see today. Bring your sage, drum, jingle dress, and mask!”

For the most part, these removal, while tense, have not resulted in any injuries or additional property damage. One exception to this was the removal of another Confederate statue in Portsmouth, Virginia, which resulted in a 30-year-old man being injured. According to witnesses at the scene, the man was standing under the statue when it was toppled, and received a large head wound and lost a large amount of blood. The man has been hospitalized, and no arrests have been made.