Two plaques dedicated to Confederate General Robert E. Lee were removed from Saint John's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn on Wednesday.

The tributes were taken down after a city council candidate called the local bishop following the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Some said the plaques were part of history, but Bishop Lawrence Provenzano said they should be removed.

"He knowingly supported the Confederacy's fight against the United States to preserve slavery," Provenzano said. "That's evil, there's no getting around that. It's a historic fact."

"It's a part of history," said Bay Ridge resident Walter Sett. "Matter of fact, our children, my children, my grandchildren, they probably won't know about General Lee."

The first plaque was installed in 1912 by the Daughters of the Confederacy to commemorate a tree planted by Lee in the 1840s while stationed nearby at Fort Hamilton. The second commemorates the tree's replacement in 1935.

The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island owns the church, but the building is up for sale. Some residents denounced the plaques' removal.

"I think things like this should be left alone," one man said outside the church. "If you don't like it, don't look at it."

"Now all of a sudden after 100 years, it's derogatory?" another man said. "It's part of our history." 

But Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a 90-day review of "symbols of hate on city property."

He tweeted that a plaque honoring Philippe Pétain in the Canyon of Heroes will be one of the first that the city will remove. Pétain was a hero French general in World War One, but then became a Nazi collaborator.

De Blasio also joined Brooklyn officials in demanding streets in Fort Hamilton that honor Lee and Stonewall Jackson, another Confederate general, be changed. The Army had already denied that request.

Bronx Community College also announced that it was removing statues of Lee and General Jefferson Davis from the Hall of Fame for Great Americans on its campus.

President Trump made it clear Tuesday where he stands on removing tributes to the Confederacy:

"I wonder, is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?" Trump said at Trump Tower. "You know, you really do have to ask yourself, 'Where does it stop?'"

The bishop said the Lee plaques will be stored in a private archive in Garden City on Long Island.