Ulysses S. Grant statue toppled in San Francisco

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A statue of former President Ulysses S. Grant-- the Union general who led his army to victory against the Confederacy during the Civil War-- was toppled on Friday as hundreds gathered in San Francisco to celebrate Juneteenth.

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During his tenure in the White House, Grant advocated for the civil rights of former slaves and helped ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave blacks the right to vote.

While Grant allowed pardons for former Confederate leaders, he also passed laws that limited the activities of the Klu Klux Klan to prevent them from terrorizing African Americans.

Critics of the former president point to the fact that he owned a slave, who may have been gifted to him but was freed before the beginning of the war.

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Nearly 400 people gathered to knock down the effigy on the anniversary commemorating the day African Americans in Texas were finally informed that President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves living in Confederate states two years earlier.

No arrests were made during the statue incident, according to NBC Bay Area.

The statue was one of three knocked over Golden Gate Park during demonstrations.

The others included a statue of Junípero Serra, an 18th-century missionary who was declared a saint in the Catholic Church, and Francis Scott Key, the author of the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner."

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Protesters have torn down several statues across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death-- an unarmed black man who died in police custody after a former Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for over eight minutes.