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Davidson County Judge Halts Move Of Confederate Memorial

Lexington's Confederate memorial stands on the square at the corner of Main and Center Streets. PAUL GARBER/WFDD

The dispute over Lexington's Confederate monument is headed to court after the city's attempt to move it came to a last-minute halt.

The ongoing fight over the statue has caused a rift between city leaders — who want the monument moved from the town's square — and Davidson County commissioners, who want it to stay where it is.

A superior court judge issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the city's plans to move the statue last week. 

City leaders have called the monument divisive and a reminder of racial injustice.

“Davidson County is on the wrong side of history,” city leaders said in a public statement released Friday.

Protesters on both sides of the issue have frequently gathered in the uptown square over the last several months. That's led to an increased police presence and occasional confrontations.

A hearing over the matter is scheduled to be heard in a Davidson County courtroom on Thursday.

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.

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