RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina legislators again have located money to help build a long-planned park for the contributions of African Americans in the state and to provide “contextual signage” for existing monuments on the old Capitol grounds.
The state Senate voted unanimously on Monday evening to earmark $4 million toward the projects within a bill that allocates $119 million for building construction and repairs for state agencies and University of North Carolina campuses. The identical projects and the money were included in last year’s final House-Senate budget bill. That measure never became law because of a stalemate on other budget items between Gov. Roy Cooper and legislators.
The legislation includes $2.5 million designed to follow the recommendations of the North Carolina Historical Commission. The panel had voted in 2018 to add signage adjacent to three Confederate monuments on the Capitol grounds to provide context on the struggles of black residents fighting for civil rights and social justice. The commission also would erect additional monuments on the grounds honoring the contributions of African Americans in North Carolina.
The commission had acted following a request by Gov. Roy Cooper to move Confederate monuments off the Capitol grounds. The panel said a 2015 law made it impossible to move them. One of the monuments, an obelisk honoring the Confederate soldiers from North Carolina who died during the Civil War, has been defaced during recent demonstrations in opposition to racial inequality and police brutality.
The other $1.5 million goes toward the Freedom Park, to be located between the Legislative Building and the Executive Mansion. The money will be combined with $1.7 million already raised by a nonprofit assembling the park.
The Senate sent the construction spending bill to the House for consideration.
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