A black community organizing group has filed a lawsuit against their North Carolina county, claiming that a Confederate monument is violating the 14th Amendment.
Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County claimed in the lawsuit that the Tyrrell County Confederate Memorial violates the equal protection clause because of its “racist” language thanking “faithful slaves.”The
“Tyrrell County’s monument communicates, on behalf of local government, the idea that Black people who were enslaved in Tyrrell County preferred their slavery to freedom,” the lawsuit states, adding that it pushes “the idea that Tyrrell’s institutions regard Black people’s rightful place as one of subservience and obedience.”
The 20-foot-tall monument sits outside the Tyrrell County Courthouse, one of the oldest operating courthouses in North Carolina.
The community organizers have been protesting against the monument for years, though they have received pushback from many local residents.
The lawsuit seeks the judge to force the county to remove the monument, “pre-judgment and post-judgment interest and recovery of costs, as well as reasonable attorneys’ fees,” and “any other and further relief the Court deems equitable and just.”
The Hill reports, “The suit comes up against a 2015 North Carolina law that was intended to prevent local government from removing Confederate monuments, though the plaintiffs claim the law only applies to monuments owned by the state government, and not counties.”
“More than a dozen Confederate monuments have been taken down by local governments within the last five years, the suit claims. Others were also taken down by force, including one toppled by protesters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018.”
