The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ordered that Asheville and Buncombe County stop the process of removing the Vance Monument for now. (Video above shows the beginning of the removal.) Sign up for our Newsletters The monument in Pack Square commemorates Zebulon Vance who governed North Carolina and served as a U.S. senator during the Civil War. The Society for the Historical Preservation of the Twenty-Sixth North Carolina Troops, Inc. had.
Long-time Asheville racial justice activist Oralene Simmons said it was only recently that she believed the prominent monument that has appeared on postcards of the city could ever come down. But in light of the time and all of the things we have seen happening lately, and with other cities and states taking down monuments and statutes, I just felt that we were in line to go that way.
Simmons, who is Black, co-chaired the Asheville-Buncombe County Vance Monument Task Force, formed after the spring protests.
Members were charged with deciding whether to repurpose the monument or tear it down. The task force ultimately voted 11-1 on Nov. 19 to remove it.