National
In rare move, N. Carolina county removes Confederate statue

By Associated Press
November 20, 2019 at 7:04 a.m. EST

PITTSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina county removed a Confederate statue from a historic courthouse early Wednesday, joining the handful of places around the state where such monuments have come down in recent years despite a law protecting them.

Preparations began Tuesday night to carefully dismantle the statue of a soldier outside the historic Chatham County courthouse, where it had stood since 1907, and continued for hours overnight, said county spokeswoman Kara Lusk Dudley. By dawn, even the base was gone.

A subdued crowd of several dozen people watched the work unfold. Television news footage showed workers atop motorized lifts secure the statue, which was then hoisted away by a crane as a few people cheered.

The removal comes months after Winston-Salem officials removed a Confederate statue from land there that had passed into private hands. Protesters have also torn down two such monuments in recent years, including one at a historic Durham courthouse and another on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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