Confederate Statue in North Carolina Comes Down After 112 Years

A Confederate monument in the small town of Pittsboro, N.C., was removed early Wednesday from the spot outside a courthouse where it had stood for 112 years, county officials said, bringing to an end months of debate and occasionally violent protests over its presence.

Crews worked for several hours on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning to “safely and respectfully dismantle” the monument, including its statue and pedestal, Chatham County said in a news release on Wednesday. About 75 people, including supporters and opponents of the monument’s removal, watched it come down, according to The News & Observer.

The statue and the pedestal were transported to a location where they will be stored until the Winnie Davis Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which owns the monument and works to honor Confederate history, “finds a more appropriate location to place them,” the news release said.

The removal of the statue, which depicts a Confederate soldier, followed the dismantling of monuments to the Confederacy in parks, public squares and college campuses across the country, often by way of official decree and in other cases at the hands of enraged protesters.

Like many of its counterparts, the Pittsboro statue was removed at night, with the county citing public safety and the effects on the traveling public. And similar to other Confederate statues, it was subject to a long legal battle and uncertainty over its ultimate fate.