DURHAM, N.C. -- A North Carolina county where protesters tore down a Confederate monument has proposed returning the crumpled statue to public view as part of an indoor display.

 

 

A joint city-county government committee in Durham issued its recommendation Tuesday for creating an indoor display at the local government building near the grounds where the statue was torn down in 2017. The display would contain the unrepaired statue with a plaque, stating its origin and fall.

Tensions rose over another recommendation, which suggested turning the empty pedestal into a piece of art honoring Confederate and Union veterans.

Once state law allows, it can go to either Maplewood or Beechwood cemeteries. However, some leaders fought back, saying Beechwood is a historically black gravesite.

The proposal is the latest move in a public debate in North Carolina about what to do with the statues that many say have racist origins. Another statue was torn down at the state's flagship public university in 2018 and Winston-Salem city officials recently called for a statue downtown to be moved.

Durham's statue was torn down following a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The report will now go to the attorneys and managers for the city and county to decide what to do next.