Work to move Confederate statue begins in Winston-Salem NC

[struggle4progress]

By Wesley Young
Winston-Salem Journal
Feb 24, 2019 Updated 10 hrs ago

Workers used a lift to examine the structure of the Confederate statue in downtown Winston-Salem Sunday morning in preparation for the removal of the statue at a date that has not yet been revealed by the city.

In another development relating to the placement of the controversial memorial, City Attorney Angela Carmon said over the weekend that the court hearing over an effort to stop the removal of the statue has been pushed back to March 25 ...

The statue was erected in 1905 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy as a memorial to the Civil War dead here ...

The UDC has filed suit against the city, Forsyth County and the owner of the property where the statue stands, challenging the legality of the removal effort ...

https://www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/work-to-move-confederate-statue-begins-in-winston-salem/article_5d9103b3-191c-57c0-819a-41aebb90be2d.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Crews Make Final Evaluation Of Confederate Monument

WFMY News 2 Digital
Published: 4:50 PM EST February 24, 2019
Updated: 4:50 PM EST February 24, 2019

... Winston-Salem city leaders told the owners of the recently vandalized Confederate monument to remove it by Jan. 31 or face a possible lawsuit.

Right after the new year, a city sent a letter to the United Daughters of the Confederacy ordering them to 'remove and relocate' the statue.

https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/crews-make-final-evaluation-of-winston-salem-confederate-monument-still-no-date-for-removal/83-3f50915e-6adf-4e80-bad0-743075d87629

[struggle4progress]

2. The Lost Cause must be surrendered

By Adam McDuffie
Guest columnist
Feb 15, 2019

... The persistent debate has offered a glimpse into the stark divide between the two sides: those who find the statue to be a benign memorial to fallen soldiers fighting for their homes and families, and those who find the statue to be a blatant shrine to white supremacy and soldiers who gave their lives in defense of slavery ...

In the South, the Lost Cause has long existed as a regional civil religion. The naming of streets after Confederate leaders, the use of rebel imagery for school mascots with Dixie as a fight song, the display of Confederate flags, Confederate Memorial Day or the celebration of Robert E. Lee’s birthday on Martin Luther King Day, and, yes, the erection of Confederate monuments — these are the elements of the religion of the Lost Cause, meant to recast the Confederacy as a noble struggle ...

These statues were predominantly built at a time when many of the last Confederate veterans were dying, providing an opportunity to concretize the message of the Lost Cause and pass the narrative on to a new generation. Lt. Col. Alfred Moore Waddell, the Confederate veteran and architect of the 1898 Wilmington Riot, alluded to this purpose in his speech at the dedication of the statue in Winston-Salem in 1905. He rejoiced at the building of monuments that granted Confederate soldiers “an immortality of fame.” The statue, like the Lost Cause itself, shapes the communal memory as it strips away what the soldiers fought for ...

... If the statue belongs anywhere, it belongs in a space where sufficient context can be provided to explain the actual cause these soldiers fought to defend ...

https://www.journalnow.com/opinion/columnists/adam-mcduffie-the-lost-cause-must-be-surrendered/article_e7a582bf-af60-5407-9dfd-d430bb8d2db5.html

[marble falls]

3. Losers and traitors don'r get to keep their statues.

[struggle4progress]

4. Democrats in NC legislature seek to overturn 2015 monuments law

February 13, 2019
David Larson

RALEIGH — As Winston-Salem, UNC Chapel Hill and others debate long-standing Confederate memorials, legislative Democrats believe eliminating a 2015 law would allow more flexibility for local control over these monuments ...

Senate Bill 22, the 2015 law in question, was passed unanimously in the Senate ... It was unanimously approved by House Republicans and easily made it to then-governor Pat McCrory’s desk, where it was signed into law ...

... In Winston-Salem, in Lowe’s home county, the local government is dealing with its own version of the controversy seen in Charlottesville and Chapel Hill. A Confederate statue displayed at the courthouse has caused debate and occasional vandalism.

The city council has voted to have it moved. The .. United Daughters of the Confederacy, not the state of North Carolina, owns the statue, and the UDC has not been able to produce documents proving their ownership.

“It’s time to move on,” Lowe told North State Journal. “In order to let municipalities make their own decisions on this issue, they need to be given flexibility and not be forced to go through the Historical Commission” ...

https://nsjonline.com/article/2019/02/democrats-in-nc-legislature-seek-to-overturn-2015-monuments-law/

[struggle4progress]

5. Residents put Confederate monument on public safety agenda

By Jordan Green - February 12, 2019

Scooters and bow hunting were on the agenda for the Public Safety Committee, but residents wanted to talk about the Confederate statue.

City officials announced immediate plans to remove the Confederate monument at the end of January, and yet it was still standing when members of Hate Out of Winston appeared before the Public Safety Committee of Winston-Salem City Council on Monday night.

“You have written us a check that we cannot cash,” Miranda Jones told members of the committee as 10 members of the group stood behind her. “We are here and plan to stay here.”

After the meeting, Assistant City Manager Damon Dequenne declined to comment on the status of the initiative, other than to confirm that the city was still trying to work out logistics and that the removal of the statue could take place at any time within the next few weeks. City Attorney Angela Carmon said a judge denied a request for a hearing in response to a second motion by the United Daughters of the Confederacy for a temporary restraining order ...

https://triad-city-beat.com/residents-put-confederate-monument-public-safety-agenda/

[Princess Turandot]

6. Perhaps if the handmaidens of hate asked him really nicely...

..Trump might install the statue on one of his golf courses!

[struggle4progress]

7. Wake Forest dean of admissions apologizes for 1982 Confederate flag photo

by The Associated Press
Saturday, February 23rd 2019

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina university administrator shown in a 1982 yearbook photo standing in front of a Confederate flag has issued an apology.

WXII -TV in Winston-Salem reports the picture shows Wake Forest University Dean of Admissions Martha Allman, who graduated from the school in 1982, standing in front of a Confederate flag with the Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Allman issued a letter Thursday acknowledging the photo and apologizing for being in it. She said she maintains her commitment as an administrator to moving Wake Forest forward in equity and inclusion and working to make the campus a welcoming and nurturing community for all of its members ...

https://wlos.com/news/local/university-dean-apologizes-for-1982-confederate-flag-photo-02-23-2019

[jcmaine72]

8. Just tear that abomination down now.

Why is this even still being debated? This isn't a legal question any longer but a moral one, and one that has only one correct answer.

No statues, memorials or places of rest for the traitorous defenders of slavery and white supremacy. Tear them all down, smash them all to bits, and pave them all over.

Future generations need to see that we did something to at least address this unforgivable and unwatchable sin from our nation's past. It's no substitute for proper reparations, but until then, removing these unsightly symbols of hate and treason from public view will have to suffice.