Georgia vandals knock over monument to Michelle Obama's freed slave ancestor

Police in Rex, Georgia are investigating after a monument to one of First Lady Michelle Obama's ancestors was vandalized.

WSB-TV reported on Monday that a heavy stone monument to Melvinia Shields was recently pushed off its foundation block.

According to Georgia's Civil War Sesquicentennial website, Shields was born into slavery in South Carolina in 1844. After the Civil War, she moved to the Georgia community that would later be known as Rex.

"It was our little source of pride because here we are in little old Rex, Georgia, and we had ties to the White House, so there's pride in us for that," Clayton County Commissioner Sonna Singleton told WSB-TV.

"We're going to believe just the way we showed that unity on that day here in Rex when we had the dedication of this memorial, we're going to believe that there's not that kind of hatred or dissension that someone would do this," she added.

Organizers are working with the monument company to have the stone lifted back into place before a celebration to recognize the area's history that is scheduled for later this month.

Watch this video from WSB-TV, broadcast June 10, 2013.