DECATUR, Ga. — A Confederate monument has been removed by crane from a town square near Atlanta amid cheers from the watching crowd.

As midnight approached on the eve of Juneteenth, the obelisk glorifying the Lost Cause was laid on its side and slid to a waiting truck in Decatur, Georgia.

The figure had been a flashpoint for protests in the city after the police killing of George Floyd, and was often vandalized and marked by graffiti.

A Georgia judge had ordered its removal just hours before Rayshard Brooks was killed by a white Atlanta police officer, renewing protests in the Georgia capital region.