Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has called for the removal of 11 Confederate statues from the US Capitol, part of a nationwide push to dismantle such memorials after George Floyd's killing in police custody ignited mass anti-racism protests.
"Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals" of American democracy and freedom, the top Democrat in Congress wrote to a bipartisan committee.
"Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage," Ms Pelosi added. "They must be removed."
Some of the statues of men who led or participated in a failed secession against the United States during the Civil War are featured prominently in the Capitol.
They include the bronze figure of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, and the marble statue of Alexander Stephens, who served as the Confederacy's vice president.
Read: Trump rejects call to change Confederate military base names
Statues of the pair, who Ms Pelosi noted were charged with treason against the United States, are on display in Statuary Hall, one of the most popular tour destinations in the Capitol building.
A statue of general Robert E Lee is one floor below.
Ms Pelosi pointed to reprehensible comments by Stephens in his 1861 cornerstone speech when he said the Confederacy was founded on "the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man".
Ms Pelosi wrote her letter to the Joint Committee on the Library, which is chaired by a Republican senator and has a House Democrat as vice chair. It is not the first time she has called for such action.
Ms Pelosi urged then-speaker Paul Ryan to remove the statues in August 2017, days after a white supremacist rally turned deadly in Charlottesville and President Donald Trump equivocated over white nationalism.
Meanwhile, a group of protesters has pulled down a three-metre tall bronze statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
It is the latest US monument to be torn down amid nationwide demonstrations against police brutality and racial inequalities.
The statue was pulled from its base by several dozen people led by a Minnesota-based Native American activist.
Statues of Columbus have also been damaged in Boston, Massachusetts and Richmond, Virginia.
Native American activists have long objected to honouring Columbus, saying that his expeditions to the Americas led to the colonisation and genocide of their ancestors.
