'N.C. Group Asking For Removal Of Confederate Monument'

WRAL GREENVILLE, N.C. -- A citizens' group has asked Pitt County commissioners to remove a Confederate memorial from the grounds of the county courthouse, but it's unclear if its request will even be considered. "We're not asking it be destroyed. We're asking it be taken down and moved to a more appropriate location," Ozie Hall told commissioners Monday, suggesting that the monument may belong in a museum. The monument featuring a Confederate soldier was erected in downtown Greenville in 1914. It reads in part: "Erected by the people of Pitt County in grateful remembrance of the courage and fortitude of her Confederate soldiers." Keith Cooper, another proponent of the statue's removal, called it a "relic representing slavery" and questioned why tax money should maintain it. Hall and Cooper were among about 10 people at the meeting who wanted the statue relocated. About 30 people came to ask that it remain untouched. Retired U.S. Marine Jimmy Ward said the monument should stay because it represents a chapter in the nation's history. "Sanitizing history only hurts future generations," he said. David Collins, an East Carolina University history professor, recommended building a second monument in honor of black Union soldiers. "There shouldn't be any objection to honoring anyone who fought," he said. County commissioners did not discuss the removal proposal Monday. A commissioner would have to sponsor the measure and include it on the board's agenda before it could be formally considered. I say leave it. People have been mislead in what the war between the states was really about. For some it was slavery but for most in the south it was opposing a federal government that was being just as opressive as that of England that we fought with in the 1770s. For those in the north that wanted the war it was largely based on economics. I'll save this topic for another day, but let me just say for the record that North Carolina didn't secede until Lincoln sent Federal troops into the south to force the CSA to rejoin the Union. North Carolina didn't fight to keep slavery we fought for our Constitutional rights and the rights of our neighbors.