Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

City Takes Step Toward Moving Winston-Salem's Confederate Statue

Workers using a cherry picker examine the Confederate monument in downtown Winston-Salem on Sunday, February 24, 2019. MOLLY DAVIS/WFDD

City officials in Winston-Salem have taken another step to move a Confederate statue from its prominent downtown location.

On Sunday morning, crews with a background in historic preservation began the work of taking measurements needed to ensure that the move is done in a safe way that won't harm the statue.

A release from the city says the review was needed because no plans or photos of the original construction are available.

Workers examined the structure from top to bottom using a cherry picker. City officials still say a date for the statue's removal has not been determined.

The city wants to move the statue to a private cemetery because they say its downtown presence is a public nuisance that could spark violent confrontations.

The original owners of the statue, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, are fighting the move.

They say the city is giving in to mob rule sparked by vandals and protesters. They have asked that the city not move the statue until the matter has made its way through the courts.

A hearing on the monument's removal is scheduled for next month.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate