Watch Durham County Protesters Topple Confederate Statue After Charlottesville
Video of a group of protesters toppling a Confederate statue outside the Durham County, North Carolina courthouse Monday has gone viral, bringing visibility to a Facebook event calling for “solidarity with Charlottesville[‘s] anti-racist and anti-fascist activists.”
According to local CBS affiliate WNCN, a woman used a ladder to climb on top of a statue of a Confederate soldier around 7:10 p.m. and tied a yellow rope around it. The gathered crowd later pulled on the rope and the statue fell over easily.
In video clips capturing the moment, several individuals can be seen running up to the statue to kick it, spit on it, and otherwise generally deface the monument.
The statue, called the Confederate Soldiers Monument, was dedicated to the city in 1924 and stands just outside the government building that houses the offices of the county manager and the county attorney. It features a seal engraved with “The Confederate States of America” and also displays the words, “In memory of the boys who wore gray,” in reference to Confederate soldiers’ uniforms during the Civil War.
On Tuesday, ABC News reported that authorities may charge protesters with vandalism for what they refer to as “civil disobedience that is no longer civil.”
“I am grateful the events that unfolded Monday evening did not result in serious injury or the loss of life, but the planned demonstration should serve as a sobering example of the price we all pay when civil disobedience is no longer civil,” Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews said in a statement Tuesday.
The Durham County protests came just two days after a clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, grew violent, resulting in the death of one woman and the injuries of 19 others.