A statue of a Confederate soldier stands outside the Tyrrell County Courthouse in Columbia, N.C., on a base that includes a bust of Robert E. Lee and the inscription: “IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES.” (Ian Mance). Img source: www.washingtonpost.com
May 25, 2024 Story by: Editor
COLUMBIA — A federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday aims to remove a Confederate monument marked “in appreciation of our faithful slaves” from the courthouse grounds in Tyrrell County, North Carolina.
The lawsuit was initiated by the Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County, a civic group addressing issues affecting local Black residents, along with several of its members. They are suing the county’s commissioners, claiming that the monument represents racially discriminatory government speech, violating the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
Tyrrell County, located in eastern North Carolina, has a population of a few thousand residents. The contested monument, erected in 1902, features a Confederate soldier atop a pedestal with inscriptions that include a reference to “faithful slaves.” The lawsuit argues that the monument promotes a racist and offensive message, suggesting that enslaved Black people in the county preferred slavery over freedom.
“The placement of such a monument near the door of the Tyrrell County Courthouse was intended to remind Black people that the county’s institutions viewed their rightful place as one of subservience and obedience, and to suggest that they could not and would not receive justice in the courts,” the lawsuit contends.
The Associated Press reached out to the Tyrrell County manager via email for a comment on the lawsuit.
In 2015, North Carolina legislators passed a law restricting the relocation of “objects of remembrance” such as military monuments. However, the lawsuit notes that over a dozen Confederate monuments have been removed in the state over the past five years, often through local officials’ votes.
Some monuments were forcibly taken down. In 2018, protesters dismantled a Confederate statue known as “Silent Sam” on the University of North Carolina campus at Chapel Hill. Statues of soldiers from the North Carolina Confederate Monument on the old Capitol grounds in Raleigh were removed in June 2020. Citing public safety, Governor Roy Cooper ordered the removal of the remaining parts of the monument and two others on Capitol grounds.
Confederate monuments in North Carolina, as well as across the nation, became focal points for racial inequality protests in the late 2010s, especially following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
The Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County have long advocated for the removal of the courthouse monument, from testifying at county commission meetings to advertising on billboards.
