Franklin County supervisors vote to keep Confederate statue at courthouse

ROCKY MOUNT – The statue of a Confederate soldier that stands outside the Franklin County Courthouse in Rocky Mount won’t be going anywhere.

Tuesday at their regular meeting, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to keep the monument where it is. Though at least four of the supervisors spoke of placing a plaque nearby bearing text to expound on the statue’s purpose as a memorial, the board deferred discussions of that idea until a later date.

“The issue that was before this board and that was on the agenda was whether or not the statue of the Confederate soldier in front of the courthouse stays where it’s been all these years or is moved. That’s it,” said Boone District Supervisor Ronnie Thompson. As for the proposed contextualization, “that’s a whole ’nother story for a whole ’nother day,” he said, making the motion to leave the statue in place.

Seconded by Union Hall Supervisor Tommy Cundiff, the motion passed on a roll call vote, in front of an audience of about five people. Because of new state social distancing restrictions, only eight chairs were made available in order to limit the number of people gathered in the chamber to a maximum of 25. Others interested in the proceeding had to wait outside.

Read more: https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/franklin-county-supervisors-vote-to-keep-confederate-statue-at-courthouse/article_106ee36e-c5fb-5e1b-a479-5ab0a06dd45e.html