FILE - A Confederate monument stands outside the Alamance County Courthouse in Graham, N.C., Oct. 7, 2020. A state appeals court ruled Tuesday, March 19, 2024, that local leaders who refused calls to the monument acted in a constitutional manner, saying the statue was properly kept in its longstanding location under state law. RALEIGH, N.C.
Confederate monuments in North Carolina, as elsewhere nationwide, were a frequent focal point for racial inequality protests in the late 2010s, and particularly in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. North Carolina legislators enacted a law in 2015 that limits when an “object of remembrance” such as a military monument can be relocated.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs said the county and the commissioners violated the state constitution by exercising discriminatory intent to protect a symbol of white supremacy outside the historic Alamance County Courthouse, thus creating the appearance of racial prejudice there.
“At all times, the Monument Protection Law required the County to leave the Monument in its current place,” Dillon wrote. He added that a provision in the state constitution intended to ensure state courts are open to the public doesn’t prohibit the placement of objects of historical remembrance in and around a courthouse. The courthouse monument was dedicated in 1914.
“Indeed, in many courthouses and other government buildings across our State and nation, there are depictions of historical individuals who held certain views in their time many today would find offensive,” Dillon wrote.Even with the 2015 law, Confederate monuments in North Carolina have been taken down in recent years, sometimes through force.at the University of North Carolina campus at Chapel Hill.