The monument was erected in 1924 in front of the
Old Durham County Courthouse in
Durham, North Carolina and dedicated on May 10, 1924. The statue was pulled down and severely damaged by protestors on August 14, 2017, as part of nationwide demonstrations that followed the
fatal attack on counterprotestors at
Unite the Right rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia. For the illegal removal of the statue, the Durham County sheriff's office arrested and charged 7 protestors with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including felony inciting a riot and misdemeanor disorderly conduct by injury to a statue. (All charges against the protestors were dropped on February 20, 2018.) Additional protests were held on August 18, 2017, among rumors of a possible
KKK rally in opposition to the statue's removal. As part of the August 18 protests, a piece of paper reading "shame" was taped onto the inscription, causing it to read
In shame of "The boys who wore the gray". "Death to the Klan" was written below this altered inscription in marker. The damaged statue was placed into storage by the Durham police. changes to the statue or its base cannot occur without the permission of the
North Carolina Historical Commission, and by the same law, the commission can only approve moves to a location equally prominent on the same site. The Durham City-County Committee on Confederate Monuments and Memorials was created in response to the statue's removal and first convened in April 2018 to issue recommendations on what to do with the remaining base within the confines of this law, as well to catalog and issue recommendations on other Confederate memorials in the area. In early 2019, the Committee recommended that it be displayed inside the county administrative building in its crumpled state.{{cite news Between midnight and 3:00am on Tuesday, August 11, 2020, the base of the monument was removed by officials and transported to an undisclosed location. ==See also==