Crews work quickly to prepare the statue of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson as rain clouds approach. Crowds would later stand in the pouring rain cheering and applauding as lightning appeared across the sky and the statue of Jackson was removed from atop its pedestal and lowered to the ground. The monument sat on a tree lined boulevard aptly named "Monument Avenue". The avenue is lined with large affluent homes and until recently, it was punctuated with massive Confederate statues. After the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, protesters in the city took to the streets. Marches were organized and some protesters turned their attention to the Confederate monuments in the city. The plinths of many of the monuments, including the Stonewall Jackson Monument, were painted with messages that called for police reform. Protesters even tried to topple a few of the smaller statues. The bronze equestrian statue of Jackson, first unveiled in 1919, was removed in July of 2020. It was the first of Richmond's Confederate statues to be removed after Richmond's Mayor Levar Stoney utilized his emergency powers to have the statues removed. After the social justice protests following the death of George Floyd, the unified calls for justice and reform, and several court cases, all five of Monument Avenue’s Confederate statues were removed, and their pedestals were dismantled.