Protesters tear down statue of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis

Protesters tore down the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Virginia's capital on Wednesday night.

Police were called to the scene on Richmond's famed Monument Avenue and formed a perimeter around the toppled statue of Davis, who served as the president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865. The sculpture was towed away just before midnight as a crowd of bystanders cheered.

It's the latest statue to fall in Richmond in recent days amid anti-racism demonstrations.

Protesters knocked down a statue of Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in Monroe Park last weekend.

The Christopher Columbus statue in Byrd Park was pulled down and thrown into a nearby pond on Tuesday night.

Officials in states across the country have announced the removal of Confederate-era statues and monuments amid widespread civil unrest following the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in Minneapolis after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck as three other officers stood by.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has vowed to take down Richmond's monument of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as soon as possible and put it into storage, but a court order has temporarily blocked his plans to do so. The 60-foot-tall statue, among others on Monument Avenue, has been vandalized with graffiti.