Protesters remove 2 Confederate statues from the Capitol grounds, hanging 1 from a Raleigh street light post
The News&Observer
June 19, 2020
Protesters pulled down two bronze soldiers on the 75-foot Confederate monument at the state Capitol Friday night, then hung the statue of a cavalryman by its neck from a streetlight.
The other statue, an artilleryman, was dragged through the streets to the Wake County courthouse, and later carried away by police in a golf cart.
At one point, a protester pressed a knee into the neck of the statue at the courthouse, a reference to George Floyd, who died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer took the same position for more than eight minutes. Protesters put a Black Lives Matter sign listing the names of black people killed by police on the statue’s chest.
Before dark, protesters had wrapped yellow rope around the necks of the figures, but police intervened. Officers removed the ropes and then cleared out after about a half hour, allowing protesters to mount the base of the 125-year-old memorial to Confederate soldiers and sailors.
As a protester climbed up to where the statues stood, another group approached the scene and tried to convince people not to take the statues down. That lead to some skirmishes.
On top of the monument, the protester rocked one statue, then the other, back and forth as hundreds of protesters shouted encouragement from the ground.
Minutes later, the demonstrators looped an orange strap around the statues and pulled.
This time, the statues fell to the ground.
Earlier in the day, groups convened in Raleigh and Durham to celebrate Juneteenth, the commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, and to remind politicians that demands for true equality for African Americans remain unmet.
“It’s very significant that we tie together Juneteenth and the current climate of what’s going on right now,” said Raleigh Demands Justice organizer Kerwin Pittman, referencing the protests that have rocked cities across the country since George Floyd was killed by police.
“We really must tie those things together because it’s the same thing yesterday as it is today. We’re still fighting for liberation. We’re still fighting for emancipation from a racist, biased criminal justice system.”
Police arrested at least one person in connection with the effort to bring down the statues Friday.
Monuments removed across the country
Raleigh is not the first city to see monuments representing white supremacy downed by protesters. In recent years, Confederate monuments have been toppled by protesters in Durham and Chapel Hill.
In Richmond, Virginia, last week, protesters pulled down a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, from its pedestal and dragged it across historic Monument Avenue.
In Montgomery, Alabama, protesters removed a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee outside a school bearing his name.
Protesters have taken down statues of historical figures not related to the Confederacy too. In Boston, Massachusetts, a statue of Christopher Columbus was beheaded. Protesters in Portland, Oregon, toppled a statue of George Washington.
In England, protesters threw a statue of a slave trader into the river.
Some governments have moved to take down statues and monuments before protesters could get to it.
In Louisville, Kentucky, for example, a statue of Confederate officer John Breckinridge Castleman was taken down after a judge ruled that the city was allowed to do so.
Some North Carolina cities have recently voted to remove Confederate monuments, but state lawmakers passed a law in 2015 that made it illegal to remove monuments from public property in most cases.
Among the removals stymied by the law was the 1895 monument that protesters stripped of two statues on Friday night.
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Protesters in Raleigh drag a Confederate soldier statue through the street and hang it from a pole while Donald Trump slams cops for letting demonstrators rip down and burn a monument to General Albert Pike in D.C.
Daily Mail
June 20, 2020
President Donald Trump hit out at Washington D.C. police late on Friday night, claiming they were 'doing nothing' as protesters tore down and burned a statue of Confederate general Albert Pike.
The Pike memorial was hit by demonstrators as a protest in Raleigh, North Carolina, also targeted statues of soldiers at a Confederate monument. The statues were pulled to the ground with ropes around their necks and dragged through the streets before one was hung from a street light post.
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