Confederate statues in Baltimore removed overnight

BALTIMORE - Contractors in Baltimore have removed all four of the city's Confederate statues overnight.

The Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson monument in Wyman Park Dell was removed early Wednesday morning. The Confederate Women's Monument on West University Parkway and the Roger Taney Monument from Mount Vernon Place were also removed. Taney was a Supreme Court justice who ruled African-Americans could not be considered citizens of the U.S.

The city's Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue was also taken down.

A commission appointed by former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake recommended removing two of four Confederate-era monuments in 2015. On Monday, Baltimore's City Council made the decision to remove all of them.

Current Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said she wanted the statues to be placed in Confederate cemeteries elsewhere in Maryland.

In an effort to prevent the kind violence seen in Virginia on Saturday when white nationalists came to Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, Pugh did not announce when the statues would be removed.

On Tuesday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has called for the removal of a statue of Justice Roger B. Taney from the grounds of the State House.