A federal lawsuit has been filed calling for the removal of a Confederate monument erected outside of a North Carolina county courthouse.
On Tuesday (May 21), the Concerned Citizens of Tyrell County, an organization that tackles issues faced by local Black residents, filed a lawsuit against the county commissioners over the Confederate monument that was erected outside the courthouse in 1902, per the Associated Press.
The monument features a Confederate soldier standing on a pedestal with writing that states it was erected in appreciation of our "faithful slaves."
The Concerned Citizens' lawsuit states that the monument violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause as it constitutes racially discriminatory government speech. According to the lawsuit, the message on the monument suggests that enslaved Black people in Tyrell County preferred slavery over freedom.
“The point of putting such a monument near the door of the Tyrrell County Courthouse was to remind Black people that the county’s institutions saw their rightful place as one of subservience and obedience, and to suggest to them that they could not and would not get justice in the courts,” the lawsuit further alleges.
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