In the initial days of nationwide protests against systemic racism started in response to the police killing of George Floyd, marchers in Philadelphia were met with a line of officers at the city's Municipal Services Building, guarding a statue of 1970s mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo — a politician who often encouraged Philadelphians to "vote white."

Within days of the demonstrations, Mayor Jim Kenney ordered the statue's removal, calling it a "deplorable monument to racism, bigotry and police brutality."

The removal of Rizzo's statue falls in line with nationwide momentum to bring down controversial city monuments. Some — including Confederate statues in Richmond, VA and a Christopher Columbus statue in Minneapolis — have been toppled over by protesters, while other monuments are under review as cities wrestle with how to bring them down, where to take them and how to fill their vacancies. The process is often difficult, fraught with rules surrounding preservation and safe transport, along with strong public sentiment on the issue.

While at least 44 Confederate monuments have been uprooted since the Charlottesville protests, more than 700 remain in the U.S., according to Al Jazeera. Last week, Reps. Barbara Lee, D-CA, and Bennie Thompson, D-MS — senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus — introduced legislation that would remove 11 Confederate statues from the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection, a move that immediately followed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call for their removal.

In the meantime, some cities are following in Philadelphia's footsteps by making the call for themselves. Fredericksburg, VA last week removed a 176-year-old slave auction block from a prominent street corner, a monument that was the subject of years-long debates.

In determining how to handle the block's removal and relocation, the city council consulted with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC), an organization dedicated to reconciliation in communities divided over issues of race.

"We considered several options on where the block would end up," said Sonia Cantu, Fredericksburg’s public information officer. "We don’t put things on private property. Ultimately we decided to loan it to the Fredericksburg Area Museum for 20 years."

For the physical removal of the 800-pound block, made of fragile sandstone, the city hired an archeologist to load it on to a custom-built pallet and oversee the transport process, Cantu said. Now, the city is considering options of what to place on the corner where the block once stood.

Read the full article about the disposal of controversial monuments by Amanda Loudin at Smart Cities Dive.