DC Protesters Pull Down, Burn Statue of Confederate General

The statue, dedicated in 1901, was located in Judiciary Square about half a mile from the U.S. Capitol. It was built at the request of Masons who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing.

Racial tensions in the country hit a boiling point and spilled into the streets after Floyd's killing late last month. Video showed a white police officer pressing his knee against Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes as the handcuffed Black man said, "I can't breathe." The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder.

Civil rights activists and some local government officials in D.C. had campaigned for years to get the statue taken down but needed the federal government's approval to do so.

"Ever since 1992, members of the DC Council have been calling on the federal gov't to remove the statue of Confederate Albert Pike (a federal memorial on federal land). We unanimously renewed our call to Congress to remove it in 2017," the D.C. Council tweeted Friday.

A proposed resolution calling for the removal of the statue referred to Pike as a "chief founder of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan." The Klan connection is a frequent accusation from Pike's critics and one which the Masons dispute.

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Thomas reported from Savannah, Georgia.