A number of monuments and memorials were removed, or plans to remove them were announced, during the protests that followed the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, most of them in the United States. Some of these monuments have been the subject of lengthy, years-long efforts to remove them, sometimes involving legislation and/or court proceedings. In some cases the removal was official; in others, most notably in Alabama, laws prohibiting their removal were deliberately broken. Many monuments, memorials, and statues have been defaced, burned or destroyed. Removals first focused on monuments to the Confederate States of America, its leaders, and its military. In addition to the removal of statues and murals, numerous schools and buildings were renamed. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines announced they were prohibiting display of the Confederate battle flag on their installations, and NASCAR did the same for its grounds. The subjects of the protests expanded; in the United States many statues of Christopher Columbus were removed, as his arrival in the Western hemisphere marked the beginning of the genocide of Native American people. Many local figures connected with racism were also the subject of protests and monument removals. A statue of Union soldier and abolitionist Hans Christian Heg, who fought against slavery, was torn down by rioters. Two protestors interviewed by the media alleged that toppling the statue was to draw attention to their view of Wisconsin as being racially unjust. In the United Kingdom, Black Lives Matter activists attacked monuments to people involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and British imperialism. In Belgium, one statue and two busts of King Leopold II were removed, and many were defaced. In New Zealand, a statue of John Fane Charles Hamilton was removed.