FINCASTLE, Va. (AP) - A committee that serves Virginia’s Botetourt County has recommended that a monument to Confederate veterans be removed from the front of the county courthouse.
The Roanoke Times reported Sunday that the committee recommends moving the monument to an area behind the courthouse where it would no longer loom over minority residents.
The county’s Monuments and Memorials Committee was formed last summer to address what to do about the Confederate Veterans Monument. County residents can offer their input at a board of supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday.
Previous board meetings have seen multiple speakers who asked the board to leave the monument where it is. Some residents have also asked that the board put the matter up for a referendum.
The monument is located in the county seat of in Fincastle. It was erected in 1904. It memorializes the men of Confederate volunteer companies from Botetourt County as well as the women who supported them.
Confederate monuments across the southern U.S. have long been viewed by many as symbols of white supremacy. And they’ve drawn increasing attention following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody.
Many of the memorials to the Confederacy are being taken down, whether by demonstrators opposed to racial injustice or by authorities seeking to dismantle them through official channels.
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