The toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol yesterday has reignited the debate about whether an Oxford college should remove another stone tribute.

Protesters at an anti-racism demonstration in the city toppled the statue of Colston, a 17th century merchant, and dumped it in Bristol Harbour.

POLL: Should Oxford's Cecil Rhodes statue be removed?

Thousands of people attended the demonstration, one of many in the UK sparked by the death of George Floyd while he was under arrest in Minneapolis in the United States last month.

READ AGAIN: Protesters pull down statue of Edward Colston

It wasn't long before political commentators, including Labour activist Owen Jones, began to question whether other similar monuments should be removed.

Oxford Mail:

The focus quickly shifted to Oxford University's Oriel College, where a major campaign in 2016 failed to persuade the college remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes.

Mr Jones tweeted: "Cecil Rhodes was a self-confessed white supremacist, an architect of apartheid, a stealer of African land, and he was complicit in the deaths of countless black Africans."

And a banner was spotted in Oxford suggesting that the Rhodes statue could be next to come down.

Four years ago The Rhodes Must Fall campaign protested about the college's decision to retain the controversial statue of the British imperialist and South African politician.

READ MORE: Students from Rhodes Must Fall campaign protest

But despite numerous demonstrations they were unable to persuade the college that it should be removed.

Oxford Mail:

Those in favour of retaining the Rhodes statue include Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten.

Cecil Rhodes was born in 1853 and died in 1902.

Early commercial success enabled Rhodes to fulfil his ambition to study at Oxford, where he was admitted to Oriel College in 1873 and took his degree in 1881. 

The college will now face renewed campaigning and petitions for the Rhodes statue to be removed.

It has not yet been asked to comment.