Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement used red spray paint to express their anger toward a statue honoring the legacy of the Confederacy, according to the Associated Press. Referring to the history of racism in the Confederate states, the graffiti reads, "This is the problem. #Racist."

Charleston police spokesman Charles Francis said a tarp was placed over the statue to cover the graffiti and that city workers would soon clean it off. It was unclear when the incident happened and police are investigating.

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The statue reads, "To the Confederate defenders of Charleston." 

There have been several calls across the nation for South Carolina to take down its state Confederate flag. Currently, it hangs at half-staff in the state's capitol, Columbia, in memoriam of the nine parishioners who were killed last week.
But local politicians are standing behind the flag's legacy.

"My job is to heal the people of the state and I'm not gonna start taking political calls at this point," said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on CBS This Morning.

President Obama and Charleston mayor Joseph P. Riley are calling for the flag to be placed in a museum.

"It sends, at best, mixed messages and, at worst, for hateful people like [accused shooter Dylann] Roof, it’s an affirmation because they have appropriated something and used it as a symbol of hatred. So I think that it needs to go into a museum and I think it will,” Mayor Riley said, according to The Washington Post.

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