A Houston wedding was scheduled to take place at 3:00 PM in Sam Houston Park on Sunday, a park which has a statue of the Spirit of the Confederacy. This was the same day that protesters were also set to push for the removal of the statue and others who were there to push back. The wedding reportedly had to take place a few hours earlier so that there wouldn't be any interruptions, and those in attendance for the wedding were whisked away in police vans around the barricades. The park was closed off so the hundreds of protesters were unable to get into the park but that didn't stop them from protesting the confederate symbol.

With mass consensus building up across the nation for demand to remove confederate symbols from many cities, many lawmakers are reportedly working to do just that after the outbreak of violence in Charolettesville, Virginia a week ago. The violence broke out near the University of Virginia on July 12 during a "Unite the Right" rally which included white supremacist hate groups that clashed with counter-protesters over the removal of a confederate statue. The violence became worse when a self-proclaimed white nationalist drove their vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters injuring 19 and killing one. Two police officers who were patrolling the skies over the area also died when their helicopter crashed.

Leaders prioritizing removal

So far the mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, Jim Gray, made the decision after the incident to announce that they would be moving two statues of John C. Breckinridge and Gen. John Hunt Morgan from the courthouse, and put them elsewhere. He had reportedly already made the decision beforehand and it's been in the works for two years but due to the headlines about Charlottesville, he decided to prioritize it.

The Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, also said last Tuesday that he would have the state legislature repeal a 2015 bill that protected such monuments. He also said that allegiance to the Confederacy belonged in history and in text books and not on Capitol grounds. It was reported that even the amusement park Six Flags removed the Confederate flag from their flag poles and replaced it and the rest with the flag of the United States.

Trump's support for symbols of white heritage

President Trump lashed out during a press conference last Tuesday at those who wanted to have those monuments removed by using false equivelancy, saying that if those were removed than one would have to consider removing other historical statues such as those of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland said that they would be removing the statue of a Supreme Court Justice from the civil war era who provided the opinion that African-Americans could not obtain citizenship.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh also called for the removal of their Confederate monuments and reportedly had four of them removed overnight. One article by NBC News titled: "National Battle Over Confederate Monuments Renewed After Charlottesville Violence" offers a brief collection of reports from other cities that are doing the same thing in Florida and in Texas.

Protesters become proactive with removal of controversial symbols

The article also recalls the removal of a Confederate monument in North Carolina where protesters yanked a statue down using a rope. It's been reported that those involved had been arrested and charged with vandalism. While many lawmakers has said that they would be relocating the monuments and even returning them to local chapters that maintain Confederate estates, a Baltimore city official has already said that already have a plan and the approval to melt down the monuments they've removed. As for the wedding in Houston, the bride's mother said that no one interrupted their event.
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