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A court ruling Thursday morning dissolving the county’s restraining order has cleared a path for Lexington officials to move forward with removing its Confederate monument.
Thursday’s ruling comes a week after county officials responded to the city’s attempt to remove the monument with an emergency injunction. Days prior to Thursday’s ruling, leadership from the Daughters of the American Confederacy, the owners of the monument itself, agreed to remove it to an area outside Lexington borders.
As of now, it has not been determined where the group will take the monument.
As part of the court’s ruling, the United Daughters of the Confederacy must work with the city and county to remove the monument.
While the decision will likely bring to a close the months-long tug-of-war between the town and the county, those who demonstrated against the monument believe this victory is only the beginning.
“Y’all won this one, but wait until the election,” a monument supporter yelled at celebrating demonstrators as he drove by in his truck. “We’ve got Nov. 3.”
Only a handful of anti-monument demonstrators and even fewer pro-monument supporters came out to Thursday’s trial. Prior to the decision, hopes were high among those who spent months protesting the Confederate monument, which, for the time being is across the street from the old courthouse building.
Demonstrators had heard the evening before of the offer by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to remove the statue. While many thought Thursday’s hearing was a mere formality, others practiced a bit more caution.
“I’m out here because I heard we are going to get the statue removed,” said Cedarian X, a prominent activist within Lexington. “We'll we have to get the judge to sign off on it. Hopefully, he or she will make the right decision to sign off on it.”
Lexington joins a number of communities that have or are in the process of removing Confederate monuments, since the murder of George Floyd.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center … announced that over 100 Confederate symbols have been removed since May 26, 2020 — the start of the protests following the police killing of George Floyd,” reads a press release from the SPLC, an organization that compiles and keeps hate-related statistics.
According to the group’s data, Virginia has been the most heavily affected, with 40 Confederacy symbols removed. North Carolina is a distant second, with 18 removed Confederate monuments removed.
Anti-monument demonstrators left the courthouse with stoic expressions as if unsure they had received good news. They were all smiles, however, when the implications of the ruling dawned on them.
Lester Smith, a town resident, believed it was an historic moment.
“The statue does represent their heritage,” Smith said nodding to the passing counterprotesters. “But their heritage is against history, it’s against humanity. For them to continue to think it represents all people, it’s inappropriate.”
Smith said that now that the monument is likely on its way out, the community can work on reconciliation.
“How do we bridge the divide?” Smith said. “That has to take place. If not, the same 18th and 19th century mindset will exist. Change has come, and there needs to be even more change.”
Several of the gathered activists agree. Although they balk at counterprotesters' accusations of wanting to tear down the old courthouse or a nearby plantation, X did say there is still work to be done. He mentioned, among other goals, addressing the racial disparity among city employees, and diversifying the schools’ curriculum.
“We’ve got a lot of things to do in the city, a lot,” X said.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Court order paves way for Confederate monument removal in Lexington
