Protestors scaled a Confederate monument in Durham, North Carolina and tore it to the ground Monday night according to The Herald-Sun.
Led by groups such as the Triangle People’s Assembly, Workers World Party, Industrial Workers of the World, Democratic Socialists of America and the Antifa, members climbed the Confederate statue in front of the Durham County Courthouse, placing a rope around the neck before pulling it to the ground.
Demonstrators in downtown Durham topple a confederate monument outside the old courthouse. WARNING: some language may offend. #WRAL pic.twitter.com/xQzfeSI8jp
— Adam Owens (@AdamOwensTV) August 14, 2017
#BREAKING Protesters in #Durham topple confederate monument downtown pic.twitter.com/a3BNIavyxC
— Derrick Lewis (@DerrickQLewis) August 14, 2017
Protesters pull down Confederate statute in Durham. pic.twitter.com/zogHJrqohe
— Virginia Bridges (@VirginiaBridges) August 14, 2017
Many of the individuals who protested tonight in Durham were part of the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia between White Supremacists protesting the impending removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and counter demonstrators.
It was during those same clashes in Charlottesville that a Neo-Nazi rammed his car into a group of counter protestors killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
“Charlottesville and racist monuments across the country are the result of centuries of white supremacy,” stated Alissa Ellis, a member of Workers World Party Durham branch that was a participant in the Charlottesville protests.
“But we cannot ignore the fact that the current Trump administration has emboldened more nazis, KKK, and white supremacists to target, brutalize, and kill our communities,” she continued. “The White House and its elected white supremacists are just as responsible as hooded klansmen and racist vigilantes for what happened. They have blood on their hands.”
I’ve never understood the need to display Confederate statues in the United States, especially in front of a courthouse. Aside from the Confederacy fighting for their right to maintain slave ownership, the South wanted to secede from the United States.
As far as I’m concerned the Confederacy were traitors.
Not to mention, using the front of a court-house to honor a cause like the Confederacy who sought to preserve racial inequality is completely absurd. Especially if justice is supposed to be “blind’.
