The White House is visible behind a statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, June 23, 2020, in Washington, with the word "Killer" spray painted on its base. (ANDREW HARNIK / AP)

Across the United States, statues of Confederate leaders and other historical figures linked to slavery and the killing of Native Americans are being torn down, defaced, destroyed, relocated or removed, following protests related to the death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis.

Even though Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, he also owned more than 600 slaves, according to the website of his Virginia plantation-turned-museum, Monticello

In New York, the American Museum of Natural History announced on Sunday that it will remove a statue of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th US president, from outside its main entrance. The statue shows Roosevelt on horseback, flanked by an African American and a Native American on foot. The museum has not yet said what it will do with the statue.

On Monday, hundreds of protesters were pushed back by at least 100 security force personnel after they had thrown ropes around the statue of Andrew Jackson, the seventh US president, in Lafayette Square Park in Washington DC. The word "killer" had been spray-painted on the stone plinth, according to a reporter at the scene.

Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, has also been the target of some protesters, with many statues of the leader vandalized.

ALSO READ: Racism protesters target slavers' statues

Even though he was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, he also owned more than 600 slaves, according to the website of his Virginia plantation-turned-museum, Monticello.

In Houston, two Confederate statues in public parks have been removed. One of those statues, the Spirit of the Confederacy, had stood in Sam Houston Park for more than 100 years and is now in a city warehouse. The city has arranged to relocate the statue to the Houston Museum of African-American Culture, where it will become part of the "Lest We Forget" exhibit.

While some call for and take action to get rid of the Confederate statues, others defend them.

Center of conflict

In Richmond, Virginia, a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee has become a center of conflict. Protesters demanded the statue be taken down, and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued an order to remove it.

However, the order was blocked as a group of property owners filed lawsuit in a federal court arguing that removing the statue would devalue surrounding properties.

Federal Judge Bradley Cavedo ruled last week that the statue is the property of the people based on the deed of the structure from 1890. He issued an injunction barring the state from taking it down before a final ruling is made.

A 2016 study by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that there were more than 1,500 public Confederate symbols across the US in the form of statues, flags, state license plates, names of schools, streets, parks, holidays and military bases, mostly concentrated in the South. The number of Confederate statues and monuments then was more than 700.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, has called for the removal of Confederate symbols from public and government spaces for years.

However, there are different views on how to deal with the historical artifacts.

"I am torn about this because this is the representation of our history, this is the representation of what we thought were OK," said Tony Brown, a black professor of sociology and director of the Racism and Racial Experiences Workgroup at Rice University.

READ MORE: NASCAR bans Confederate flag from race tracks

"At the same time, we might have a wound in society, and we don't think it's OK anymore and would like to remove the images."

Ultimately, Brown said he would like to see the statues stay.

"We tend to want to whitewash our history. We tend to want to say racism is not part of who we are, not part of our structures, not part of our values. So, when you take a statue away, you are whitewashing our history, and from that moment forward, it tends to make those who move the statue feel they have done enough," he said.

Not making things go away but making things visible with context is exactly how you make people understand how deeply embedded racism is, Brown argues.

James Douglas, a law professor at Texas Southern University and president of the Houston chapter of the NAACP, would like to see the Confederate statues removed.

"They have nothing to do with the Civil War. The statues were erected to honor the Confederate soldiers and to let African Americans know that the white people are in control. They were erected in order to demonstrate the power white people had over African Americans," he said.

Agencies contributed to this story.