A 176-year-old slave auction block was on Friday removed from Virginia city’s downtown as anti-racist protests continue to rock the United States.

After a months-long delay, the 363-kilogram stone was pulled from the ground at a Fredericksburg street corner, The Free Lance-Star reported.

The block had been de-faced with graffiti after the anti-racist demonstrations hit the U.S. last week following the death of George Floyd while being arrested by police in Minneapolis.

A local chapter of the NAACP called for the stone’s removal in 2017, saying it was a relic of “a time of hatred and degradation” that was allowed to be displayed at a main thoroughfare in the city.

In 2019, the City Council voted in favor of its removal and relocation to the Fredericksburg Area Museum, and a judge upheld that decision in February after two businesses near the auction block sued to stop the relocation.

The process was held up after one of the businesses, a commercial building owner, asked the Virginia Supreme Court to bar the removal while her decision was being appealed, the newspaper said.

The museum now plans to display the knee-high stone in an exhibit chronicling the “movement from slavery to accomplishments by the local African American community,” the Free Lance-Star said. The staff also plans to feature the recent protests in the exhibit, according to the museum’s president and CEO.