Confederate statue removed in North Carolina city 12 Mar 2019 GMT+3 3-4 minutes A North Carolina city removed a Confederate statue on Tuesday from the grounds of an old courthouse, a rare move in a state where such monuments are largely protected by law. Construction crews in Winston-Salem spent more than an hour attaching a harness and a cage-like metal frame to protect the statue, then hoisted it from atop its pedestal with a large crane. The approximately 30-foot-high (nine metres) monument includes a granite statue atop a base and column and was dedicated in 1905. It depicts an anonymous soldier in a Confederate uniform resting his rifle stock against the ground. A small group of onlookers clapped and cheered as the statue was taken down and placed on a flatbed truck. Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines told The Associated Press that the statue will eventually be moved to the landmark Salem Cemetery. Before that, it will be put into temporary storage while a site at the cemetery is prepared. "We realise that there are very strong feelings on both sides of this issue, so what we've tried to do is devise a solution that recognises both sides," he said, describing its eventual home in the cemetery as "a very dignified and appropriate location for the statue". North Carolina has been at the forefront of the debate over Confederate monuments. It is one of three southern states with the most Confederate statues, according to the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) watchdog group. Although a 2015 North Carolina law all but prohibits the permanent removal of Confederate statues from public land, Winston-Salem had more leeway than most North Carolina cities because the old courthouse property had passed into private hands. Some statues had been relocated by North Carolina cities in the years before the 2015 law went into effect, but since then, local governments have been all but blocked from doing so under the law that allows relocation only in very narrow circumstances. Two North Carolina Confederate statues have been torn down by protesters. Promoting white supremacy Confederate statues have been subject of debate in recent years. Critics argue many Confederate statues were built decades after the Civil War to promote white supremacy. Supporters counter that the monuments are simply memorials to ancestors who fought and died protecting their homes. Protests against the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee in Charlottesville turned deadly on August 12, 2017, when white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr rammed his car into a group of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Two years earlier, in June 2015, white nationalist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine African American worshippers in Charleston, South Carolina. After the shooting, photos emerged of Roof posing with a Confederate flag. Both incidents reinvigorated the national debate about Confederate monuments and symbols. The Winston-Salem statue has been vandalised twice since late 2017 and critics and supporters gathered for a tense rally around the statue in January. According to the SPLC, at least 110 Confederate memorials have been removed since Roof went on his shooting rampage in 2015. As of June 2018, the watchdog noted, 1,728 Confederate memorials remain intact.
Republicans consistently make laws to keep monuments honoring devils who fought to keep Black people as slaves,and we know why that is.Black people certainly know why which is why they vote 90% Democrat.
Take all of them down. Erase the whole civil war from all of the history books. Never teach it, never speak of it. Never mention slavery. Then, someday when it happens again because no one realizes how it came to be, we will only have ourselves to blame.
Civil war history is still taught in great detail and there is no efforts to erase it from curriculums (my middle schooler still got heavy doses of it in history class), museums, and books and historical sites (i live within 2 hours of 4 major battle sites that are extremely education of both sides role in the war). The only thing being addressed is taking down the statues and monuments glorifying the individual Confederate soldiers or Confederacy. There is nothing to glorify in slavery and Confederate treason. Studying and remembering history is different than glorifying a horrible past event. Confederate statues indicate some glory mission being fought for and praised rather than detail the truth. They don't have to be destroyed but better put in a museum rather than in a square and honored like heroes. At least when you go to Mount Vernon and Monticello, the past and practices of the owners of those estates is not hidden or washed over but made a living museum to remember and learn from.
Not even remotely the same thing. One was a stronghold of Hitler. Others are monuments put up to remind us of our history.
I disagree, statues are there to glorify history or historical figures. Much like swastikas all over Germany glorifying the coming German empire (before taken down).