Cooper administration files to move Confederate monuments from Capitol

Raleigh, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper's administration formally petitioned the state's Historical Commission Friday in an effort to remove three Confederate monuments from the Capitol grounds in downtown Raleigh.

Cooper wants to move the statues 45 miles south to the Bentonville Battlefield historic site in Johnston County.

A state law passed in 2015 to protect Confederate monuments and other "objects of remembrance" restricts what the state can do, even with consent from the Commission, which is slated to meet Sept. 22.

The law says no state-owned monuments or works of art can be removed without its approval, but it also lays out rules for when the commission does allow changes. Monuments can be relocated only "when appropriate measures are required by the state" to preserve them or when removal is needed to make room for construction.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/cooper-administration-files-to-move-confederate-monuments-/16935662/