By Associated Press - Tuesday, July 14, 2020

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Workers have removed a Confederate monument that stands outside a county courthouse in the western North Carolina city of Asheville.

The Citizen-Times reports that the monument was taken down Tuesday morning.

The monument outside the Buncombe County courthouse honored the 60th Regiment and Battle of Chickamauga.

The city of Asheville recently took down a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that stood downtown.

Confederate monuments are coming down throughout the American South in the wake of protests against racism and police brutality. The wave of public sentiment was sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.

Many Confederate statues were erected decades after the Civil War, during an era when Southern states were crushing attempts to achieve equality for Black people.

County and city officials have also called for the creation of a task force to come up with a plan for a monument that honors Zebulon Vance. He was a Buncombe native and North Carolina governor during the Civil War as well as a U.S. senator.

The Vance monument stands in downtown Asheville. It was recently shrouded from view.

Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.

Please read our comment policy before commenting.

Click to Read More and View Comments

Click to Hide