Protesters Topple Thomas Jefferson Statue at Oregon High School

Bertrand L. Taylor III, a member of the Monticello Cabinet of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, takes photographs of the statue of Thomas Jefferson after the 69th annual Jefferson Memorial Ceremony April 13, 2012 at Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington. Alex Wong/Getty Images

A statue of Thomas Jefferson displayed at a high school in Portland, Oregon, was toppled on Sunday evening by protesters.

The statue of the third U.S. president outside Jefferson High School was vandalized with graffiti before being torn down with ropes and smashed with an axe by protestors, a video on Twitter shows.

The statue at the high school was the starting point of a protest march organized by Rose City Justice, reported Oregon Live. The march went from the high school to Alberta Park, began at around 7:15 p.m. Sunday with about 1,000 people.

Protestors said when they returned to the starting point at the high school, they saw that the Thomas Jefferson statue had been knocked to the ground, the news outlet reported. But videos on social media show it was still light out when the statue was toppled.

The video, posted by PDX Resistance on Twitter, shows a group of people with blurred faces knocking it down, beating the statue with a hammer, and clapping after it’s fallen.

“We’re taking this city back. One school at a time. One racist statue at a time,” an organizer of the protest said, adding, “Mr. Thomas is all beside himself,” reported Oregon Live.

Two other statues at the University of Oregon were toppled in Portland on Saturday, with one dragged to the university’s administration building. The Pioneer statue was erected in 1919 and The Pioneer Mother statue was erected in 1932, the newspaper reported.

From NTD News