Confederate statues spark renewed debates in North Carolina cities. What happens now?
Confederate monuments are sparking renewed debates in cities across North Carolina, prompting elected leaders and residents to weigh in on the future of the statues.
The statues have long been a divisive topic in the state, with some contending that they recognize Civil War-era history. Others argue the monuments are symbols of white supremacy that should be removed.
The latest push to remove the statues comes as protests continue in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died on Memorial Day after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
In North Carolina, people have rallied near a Confederate Fame statue in Salisbury, about 40 miles northeast of Charlotte, WBTV reported. In downtown Raleigh, demonstrators have vandalized Confederate monuments on the State Capitol grounds, a spot that some residents said brings them pain.
“I’ve got to walk past this every day,” Daniel Harris told The News & Observer. “As a black person, I hate it.”
At the base of one monument to those who served for the Confederacy, protesters this month put up a sign to honor Floyd.
Amid pushes for change, Salisbury and at least two other North Carolina cities have taken steps to remove their statues.
And some leaders have backed resolutions to relocate their statues.
City councils in Asheville and Rocky Mount, in Eastern North Carolina, voted to take down monuments to the Confederacy, news outlets reported.
Officials in those cities are weighing the next steps, and a state law about removing statues adds to the unknowns, according to The Citizen-Times and the Rocky Mount Telegram. N.C. Historical Commission approval is required before certain public monuments can be taken down.
In Salisbury, city leaders are having tentative talks with the United Daughters of the Confederacy about a relocation plan for its Fame monument.
Support for the monuments
Some people have spoken against removing Confederate symbols.
Rebecca Lilly, whose great-grandfather served for the Confederacy, said Asheville’s resolution was “merely an attempt by a small percentage of leftist agenda-drivers to remove history and replace it with a discriminatory narrative supportive of violent and illegal acts,” according to The Citizen-Times.
Arguments in favor of keeping monuments also have been raised in Wilson, roughly 50 miles east of Raleigh.
“They stand for people who answered the call of their governor and died defending their state,” Frank Powell, spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told The Wilson Times.
He also told the newspaper that statues across the South, including a divisive one that sits atop a Confederate burial site in Wilson, are memorials to lives lost.
“These monuments don’t stand for slavery, racism or white supremacy,” Powell said, according to The Wilson Times.
A push to remove and relocate
As leaders in Wilson and other cities grapple with future decisions, some groups have weighed in with other historical perspectives.
Near the coast, the Historic Wilmington Foundation issued a statement in support of removing two local Confederate statues, according to WECT.
“It is HWF’s hope that the monuments will be relocated to a location where they may be preserved, interpreted, contextualized, and used expressly for educational purposes, rather than to continue to serve as visual public reminders of racial injustice,” executive director Beth Rutledge said in a statement obtained by news outlets.
Across the South, most statues depicting Confederate symbols were put up during the Jim Crow period of segregation, McClatchy News previously reported.
North Carolina had 95 Confederate monuments as of November, McClatchy reported at the time. Since 2015, at least seven statues have come down in North Carolina, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Last year, local officials removed statues in Winston-Salem and Pittsboro, about 30 miles west of Raleigh. A monument was toppled at UNC-Chapel Hill during a protest in 2018.
This week, demonstrators brought down a monument of Confederate President Jefferson Davis that was erected almost 100 years ago in Richmond, Virginia, according to NPR.
Most recent protests have remained peaceful, with participants calling for changes in police tactics and justice for Floyd, ABC News reported earlier this month.
Four officers were fired and arrested in connection with the death of Floyd, who could be heard saying, “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe,” as officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Confederate statues spark renewed debates in North Carolina cities. What happens now?."
