Rally Planned In Support Of Downtown Winston-Salem Confederate Monument

A group supporting a Confederate statue in downtown Winston-Salem is planning a rally. This comes after city leaders say the monument must be moved by the end of the month.

According to a Facebook event post, the group called Heirs To The Confederacy plan on standing at the monument for three hours next Sunday. The rally will start in Chapel Hill at the site where the Silent Sam statue used to be.

That monument was taken down by protesters last year.

Earlier this week, Winston-Salem city leaders gave the owners of the downtown statue until January 31st to move it, or face the possibility of legal action. Mayor Allen Joines expressed concern that the monument could lead to violent confrontations. It's been vandalized twice, once in 2017, and again last month.

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

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.