Workers began removing Confederate statues in Richmond on Wednesday after the mayor of the US city, the former capital of the pro-slavery Civil War South, ordered them taken down. Mayor Levar Stoney was using his emergency powers to order the "the immediate removal of multiple monuments in the city, including Confederate statues," his office said in a statement. Work crews could be seen in televised footage beginning the removal of a statue of Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate general, on Richmond's Monument Avenue. The removal of Confederate statues and monuments has been a persistent demand during recent protests for racial justice in the United States. cl/st