Starting July 1, localities will have the ability to remove, relocate or contextualize the monuments in their communities. Virginia is home to more than 220 public memorials to the Confederacy.

The bills initially differed in the process a local governing body would have to follow in order to alter a monument, with the Senate-backed bill requiring a vote by a supermajority in order to act, among other things.

The measures Northam signed do not require a supermajority, but allow a locality to hold a nonbinding referendum on what to do with its monuments.

“Racial discrimination is rooted in many of the choices we have made about who and what to honor, and in many of the laws that have historically governed this Commonwealth,” Northam said in a news release. “These new laws make Virginia more equitable, just, and inclusive, and I am proud to sign them.”

Other bills signed also create a commission to recommend a replacement to the Robert E. Lee statue in the U.S. Capitol.

Discriminatory language

Northam also signed new laws to strike discriminatory language from Virginia’s Acts of Assembly and to establish a commission to study slavery in Virginia and subsequent racial and economic discrimination.