Latest Confederate monument to fall may be toppled by voters instead of protesters
Voters should decide whether to remove a 108-year-old Confederate monument from outside the Gaston County Courthouse in Gastonia, a majority of Gaston County commissioners agreed this week.
The unnamed granite soldier stands 30 feet tall and looks out at a street renamed several years ago for Martin Luther King Jr.
Commissioners took no formal vote about the monument at their meeting Tuesday night. A majority instead requested that County Attorney Jonathan Sink ask local members of the General Assembly to help place the issue on a ballot for voters to decide, according to a Gaston County government news release.
If the legislature declines to pass a bill to put the issue before Gaston County voters, commissioners could decide to take up the monument relocation issue again, commissioners’ Chairman Tracy Philbeck said in the release.
Philbeck and fellow commissioners Jack Brown, Allen Fraley and Chad Brown formed the majority who agreed to direct Sink to contact the local delegation of the General Assembly about the majority’s ballot request.
Commissioners Ronnie Worley, Bob Hovis and Tom Keigher favored having the board vote on the statue’s fate, according to the county news release.
Demands to remove Confederate monuments have occurred nationwide in recent months, prompted by widespread protests for the Black Lives Matter movement and against police brutality in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by Minnesota police.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 1:58 PM.