Confederate statue in St. Louis sprayed with graffiti -- again

May 30 (UPI) -- For the second time in a week, a prominent Confederate statue in St. Louis has been vandalized with anti-racism graffiti.

The spray-painted messages appeared on the monument in the city's Forest Park on Tuesday morning. They read, "End Racism," "Black Lives Matter" and "Nat Turner Lives."

The statue has been the focus of similar activism in the past. Two years ago, "Black Lives Matter" again appeared on the monument with a big spray-painted 'X.' Last Wednesday, it was hit again.

Officials aren't sure exactly when the new graffiti was sprayed, but it was sometime after dark on Monday.

City officials have made efforts in recent weeks to have the Confederate landmark permanently removed, as other cities have done in the South. New Orleans removed four similar monuments earlier this month.

The Confederate memorial was placed in the park in 1914, a donation from the Ladies' Confederate Monument Association. Designed by sculptor George Julian Zolnay, it depicts a family sending a son to fight in the U.S. Civil War.

The Confederate symbol, though, has been closely associated with white supremacist and segregationist ideologies, leading cities and businesses to distance themselves from the imagery in recent years. Nat Turner, who was mentioned in the graffiti, was a slave rebel leader in Virginia in the 1830s.