The Confederate monument, as it once stood in downtown Winston-Salem.
As Policy Watch reported last year, the statue stood on private property – an apartment building that was once the county courthouse. Since it wasn’t on city or state owned land, it wasn’t covered by a 2015 state law that was used to prevented the removal of such monuments in downtown Raleigh and at UNC-Chapel Hill. Those statues were themselves brought down by protesters and their remnants removed for public safety reasons.
Both the city and the owner of the apartment building wanted the statue removed. Mayor Allen Joines proposed moving the statue to nearby Salem Cemetery, which is home to 36 Confederate graves. The United Daughters of the Confederacy sued to prevent the removal, but failed in court. The statue was removed in March of last year.