Statues of Christopher Columbus and Confederate leaders have been torn down in several states, as pressure grows on authorities to remove monuments connected to slavery and colonialism.
In Richmond, Virginia, statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was toppled on June 10.
Statues of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in Boston, Miami and Virginia have been vandalized.
The movement has been sparked by the death in police custody of African American George Floyd.
George Floy’s death in Minneapolis has led to protests in the US and internationally against police brutality and racial inequality.
Memorials to the Confederacy, a group of southern states that fought to keep black people as slaves in the American Civil War of 1861-1865, have been among those targeted.
A number of Confederate statues on Monument Avenue in Richmond have been marked with graffiti during the protests.
Richmond also saw a statue of Columbus pulled down, set alight and thrown into a lake earlier this week.
A 10ft tall bronze statue of Columbus was toppled in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on June 10.
The Columbus statue in Boston, which stands on a plinth at the heart of town, was beheaded.
Many people in the US celebrate the memory of Columbus, who in school textbooks is credited with discovering “the New World”, the Americas, in the 15th Century.
However, Native American activists have long objected to honoring Columbus, saying that his expeditions to the Americas led to the colonization and genocide of their ancestors.
The death of George Floyd, whose neck was kneeled on by a police officer for nearly nine minutes, has spurred global protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Many cities and organizations have taken steps to remove Confederate symbols, which have long stirred controversy because of their association with racism.
Last week, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee would be removed from Richmond.
However, a judge has since granted a temporary injunction stopping the removal.
Stock-car racing organizers Nascar announced on June 10 it was banning Confederate flags, frequently seen at races.
President Trump meanwhile rejected calls to rename military bases named after Confederate generals, saying they remain part of America’s heritage.
The president tweeted: “The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.”
On June, President Trump renewed threats to take federal action against local protesters occupying public spaces.
In a pointed exchange on Twitter, the president demanded that the mayor of Seattle “take back your city” from protesters, whom he called anarchists and domestic terrorists.
President Donald Trump has threatened to send in army to end growing civil unrest in the US over the death of George Floyd.
The president said if cities and states failed to control the protests and “defend their residents” he would deploy the army and “quickly solve the problem for them”.
Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man in police custody, have escalated over the past week.
On June 2, Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized President Trump for “serving the passions of his base”.
He said: “We’re not going to allow any president to quiet our voice.”
On June 2, the Las Vegas sheriff said an officer died in a shooting after police attempted to disperse a crowd.
Dozens of people have been injured as authorities used tear gas and force to disperse protests which have swept more than 75 cities.
Four officers meanwhile were shot and injured on June 1 during unrest in St Louis, Missouri.
Dozens of major cities have imposed overnight curfews.
In New York, the iconic department store Macy’s was broken into, as shops were looted and windows smashed.
Curfew in the city will resume at 20:00 on June 2.
In Chicago, two people were reported killed amid unrest, although the circumstances are unclear.
The chief of police in Louisville, Kentucky has been sacked after law enforcement officers fired into a crowd on Sunday night, killing the owner of a nearby business.
Australian PM Scott Morrison has demanded an investigation into the alleged assault by police of two Australian journalists covering protests in Washington DC.
Music channels and celebrities have pledged to mark #BlackoutTuesday pausing for eight minutes – the length of time a police officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck.
The protests began after a video showed George Floyd, 46, being arrested in Minneapolis on May 25 and a white police officer continuing to kneel on his neck even after he pleaded that he could not breathe.
Officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and will appear in court next week. Three other police officers have been fired.
The Floyd case has reignited deep-seated anger over police killings of black Americans and racism. It follows the high-profile cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in New York; and others that have driven the Black Lives Matter movement.
President Trump delivered a brief address from the White House Rose Garden, amid the sound of a nearby protest being dispersed.
The president said “all Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd” but said his memory must not be “drowned out by an angry mob”.
He described the scenes of looting and violence in the capital on May 31 as “a total disgrace” before pledging to bolster the city’s defenses.
President Trump said: “I’m dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property.”
The Black Lives Matter group has organized protests in Minnesota and California on one of the busiest retail days of the year.
Minnesota protesters temporarily closed the international airport and interrupted Christmas shopping at the Mall of America.
Police said a total of 15 people were arrested at both places, mostly for trespassing or obstructing justice.
The demonstrators are angry over a police shooting of a black man in Minneapolis.
Jamar Clark was shot dead last month by officers responding to an assault complaint, in one of a number of recent incidents around the US. Activists say he was shot in the head while handcuffed.
There have been daily demonstrations in Minneapolis over Jamar Clark’s killing.
Hundreds of people took part in the protest at the Mall of America, one of the largest in North America, where Black Lives Matter organizers promised to congregate in defiance of a judge’s warning that the shopping center’s owners could legally block the demonstration.
Police said it was an “unauthorized demonstration” and at one point described the situation as “very, very dangerous”.
Photo CBS News
Police and mall security staff were speedily deployed against the protesters, warning that any who did not depart immediately would be arrested. For a while the area surrounding the mall was on lockdown, but most stores were only closed for about an hour.
Separately eight protesters blocked southbound traffic on the 101 freeway near the California city’s international airport were arrested on December 23, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Photos of the demonstrators on social media showed them holding a sign demanding justice for Mario Woods, a black man shot dead by police who is suspected of a San Francisco stabbing.
Black Lives Matter is a loosely organized movement which was formed following protests over police killings of black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and other cities.
Police use of force against African Americans has been an ongoing issue.
Protests have been held nationwide for more than a year after a series of incidents, some of them fatal.
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