Group Behind City's Confederate Monument Say Effort To Move It 'Dishonorable'

The owners of Winston-Salem's Confederate Memorial fired back at city officials who want to move the statue.

The state division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is calling the city's threat of legal action “shocking” and “dishonorable.”

City leaders recently sent a letter to the group giving them until the end of the month to move it or they could take the matter to court.

Mayor Allen Joines says the monument could be considered a public nuisance and has the potential to spark violent confrontations. He points to a 2017 protest in Charlottesville that turned deadly.

In a release, the Daughters of the Confederacy called the city's move a cheap political stunt at a time when it faces other real problems.

The statue has been on a downtown street corner since 1905, and the organization says it will do whatever it takes to keep it there.

City officials have suggested relocating it to historic Salem Cemetery and have offered to pay for the move. The monument has been vandalized twice, once in 2017 and again just before the end of 2018.