Civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson has called for all Confederate statues to be removed from US cities after the violence in Charlottesville.

Speaking to Sky News, Rev Jackson described the existence of Confederate monuments as the "unfinished business in our country".

He said: "There are no Hitler statues in Germany today or neo-Nazi material flying around.

"These guys sought to secede from our union, maintain slavery and secession and segregation and sedition, and so these statues are coming down and they should come down.

"When you lose the war you vanquish your symbols. Their symbols should exist in a museum someplace."


Image: The Robert E Lee statue in Charlottesville was erected in 1924

Mr Jackson spoke about the violent clashes during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville on Saturday, in which one person was killed.

The initial rally was triggered by the proposed removal of a statue to Confederate General Robert E Lee, whom Mr Jackson described as a "traitor to our country".

He also criticised President Donald Trump, who has claimed "many sides" were involved in the violence.

"To equate those who vow a race war, who vow to maintain the legacy of bigotry and the race supremacy, with the civil rights protest is not a fair equation.

"Such an equation has emboldened the white supremacists, has emboldened the neo-Nazis; he (Trump) sees them as his base.

"But the fact is, as President of the United States, we're all his base, the military is his base, all tax-paying Americans are his base. He sees us through a keyhole and not through a door.

"We are all under one big tent, but he sees us as a few in and many out and it's not working."

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What happened in Charlottesville?

Confederate monuments were removed from Baltimore, Los Angeles and New York earlier this week following the outcry over the Virginia violence.

Statues of General Lee and one of his top generals, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, were dismantled along with a Confederate women's monument and Confederate soldiers and sailors monument.

A monument to Confederate veterans was removed from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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And a plaque honouring General Lee was removed from a church in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday.

The Confederate States of America was a self-proclaimed nation of 11 secessionist states between 1861 and 1865 following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president.

They included South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina.

The secession began the American Civil War which ran until 1865, when all the Confederate forces surrendered.