A statue of Confederate States Army Gen PGT Beauregard was removed from its pedestal outside City Park, New Orleans, in the early hours of May 17.

The statue was the third of four monuments that city officials planned to take down. The final statue, of Robert E Lee, at Lee Circle, will be the last to come down.

The removals, which were approved in December 2016 by the New Orleans City Council, mark a “step in defining our City not by our past but by our bright future,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in a news release. “We will not allow the Confederacy to be put on a pedestal in the heart of New Orleans.”