Confederate monuments honor the legacies of slavery and white supremacy. The statues, plaques, and other symbols guarding the entrances to North Carolina courthouses were placed there to send powerful messages of terror and oppression to all Black people who enter. Confederate monuments negate the very ideal of equal justice for all. That is their purpose.
This Campaign aims to support and educate all North Carolinians seeking to remove Confederate monuments from their communities. We invite you to explore this website to learn about the existing monuments, their history, and their impact, as well as what you can do– and what communities around the state are already doing– to eradicate these monuments to racism. The campaign is available to support and consult with local groups wishing to remove Confederate monuments.
Our goal is the removal of all Confederate monuments from courthouse grounds in the state of North Carolina.
Read more from local historians supporting the campaign
It was not coincidental that the monuments were erected at the same time that white North Carolinians were working to deprive African Americans of the rights that they had secured following the defeat of the Confederacy.
The monuments reassured white southerners that slavery had been benign and that the Confederacy had been a valiant and noble experiment.
The memorial landscape we have inherited is not sacred. Just as it was created by design and by means of grass-roots mobilization, it can be reimagined and rebuilt through the same means.”
Dr. Fitzhugh Brundage • Read the Article
Of the many efforts by southern whites to perpetuate the Lost Cause myth, the erection of monuments to Confederate soldiers has been the most visible.
Confederate monuments glaringly speak that the ideals of the Old South and the Confederacy should be upheld and perpetuated. We cannot move forward continuing to align ourselves with symbols of hate.“
Dr. Freddie Parker • READ THE ARTICLE
Supporting Organizations
- ACLU of NC
- NC Council of Churches
- NC NAACP
- Second Chance Alliance
- Center for Death Penalty Litigation
- Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Forward Justice
- NC Public Defender Association
- Racial Equity Network
- Southern Coalition for Social Justice
- Emancipate NC
- UNC Black Pioneers
- North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers
- North Carolina Coalition For Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Supporting Historians
- Fitzhugh Brundage (UNC-CH)
- Karen Cox (UNCC)
- Susanna Lee (NCSU)
- Jim Leloudis (UNC-CH)
- Freddie Parker (NCCU, retired)
- William Sturkey (UNC-CH)
- Tim Tyson (Duke)
Supporting Attorneys
- Dawn Blagrove
- Hampton Dellinger
- Mark Dorosin
- Elizabeth Haddix
- Scott Holmes
- Ian Mance