The Old Joe statue - a depiction of a Confederate soldier - in downtown Gainesville will be the target of a protest Saturday morning.
The Gainesville Police Department confirms a permit has been approved for the downtown square.
"We are planning accordingly," said Sgt. Kevin Holbrook in an email statement.
The Northeast Georgia Democratic Socialists of America is organizing the protest, according to a post on the group's Facebook page.
"We will start gathering at 11:30 at the square, and try to start meeting each other and saying a few words around 11:45," the post reads. "We will try to be dispersed by 12:30."
Old Joe was erected in the park at the center of the Gainesville square more than 100 years ago. The statue does not depict a specific soldier, but is one of hundreds of similar statues that stand in cities across the country, according to an Associated Press article from 2015.
Groups across the country are calling for the removal of Confederate monuments from public properties following last week's protest in Charlottesville, Virginia that left a woman dead and other people injured during demonstrations around a Robert E. Lee statue in the city.
