The Confederate Monument Protection Act?

by | Jul 16, 2015 | Carolina Strategic Analysis, Features, NC Politics, NCGA, Race | 12 comments

SilentSam-0050-2A bill in the General Assembly might have the effect of protecting Confederate monuments from being removed. To do so, entities will have to get the approval of the legislature. That means statues like ‘Silent Sam’ on the UNC campus are here to stay unless the legislature says otherwise.

Although most see this bill as the “Confederate Monument Protection Act” it’s actually been around since February, long before the events of Charleston. It’s designed to protect objects of historical importance from being removed arbitrarily. In April, the Senate gave the bill unanimous support, with two members being absent. It makes one wonder how a re-vote in that chamber would go.

House Republicans actually wanted to put the bill to a vote yesterday, but committee Democrats protested. Instead the vote will be next Tuesday. Expect the bill to pass overwhelmingly, because the chamber is overwhelmingly Republican. What will be interesting is the amount of support it gets from Democrats. My guess is that the handful of rural, white Democrats remaining will vote for it while most everyone else in that party will be against it.

Representative Michael Speciale (R-New Bern) says the bill isn’t rooted in the Confederacy controversy, but recent events prove its necessity. Thoughtful debate in the legislature will prove effective against the “flames of passion.” He has a point: if the desired outcome is inaction, giving it to a legislative body to handle is a good idea. While it may not be rooted in events in the wake of Charleston, but those who want to maintain monuments to the “Lost Cause” will find much to be happy about with this bill.

12 Comments

  1. Art Kamm

    The flag needed to go, as well as attempts to justify monuments as a symbol of heritage rather than an abomination of fundamental human rights. The issue is laid bare by Alexander Stevens (Vice President of the Confederate States) in his ‘Corner Stone’ Speech that preceded the firing on Fort Sumpter by a matter of weeks. In that speech, where he describes the difference between the Constitutions of the Union and Confederate States, he describes the ‘corner stone’ as being the belief that the ‘Negro’ is not equal to the ‘white man’ and that “slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition”. This belief was held, in that speech, as the “immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution”. The ‘corner stone’ aspect begins on paragraph 9. The flag belongs in a museum as a dark part of our history, and monuments are not to be defended in the context of heritage. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/

  2. Jeanette

    Food For Thought:

    Should be put up monuments and Indian flags to the Indians whom we took their land and they lost to us?
    Should we put up monuments and British flags since all citizens here were not for this war and the British lost to us?
    Should we put up monuments and flags to the Mexicans whom we fought and they lost to us?
    Should we put up monuments and flags o the Spanish whom we fought and they lost to us?
    Should we put up monuments and flags to the Germans whom we fought and they lost to us.
    Should we put up monuments to the Japanese whom we fought and they lost to us?
    I could go on and on but I am sure you get the gist.
    We tend to forget that we are a Nation of all Nationalities, races, colors and creeds and the Nation was built on Freedom for All People and that even included Women.

    For Heavens Sake, get over it, the war is over the South lost, we are now the United
    States of America. We fly the American Flag because that is the Flag of Our Nation, no other Flags should Fly in our Country.

    And Yes I Am A Southerner who is sick and tired of the Hate spewed around in the name of the war and monuments and flags, it is time to move on and make this an even greater Nation for all the People since we are all natives of some other country unless you are a Native Indian and I believe they migrated from Africa if you check DNA.

    GOD made us all and he don’t make no Junk, so we should concentrate on Love not War an Hate and make this a better world for all of us live and prosper..
    I am sure GOD is looking down and appalled at what He sees.
    Why do we use Religion or the name of Religion for Hate and War since all Religions I am familiar with teaches Love and Forgiveness and to Love thy Neighbors.

  3. Russell Scott Day

    I’d suggested they all get moved to NY since NY contributed the most to the defeat of the C.S.A. on the Daily Tarheel. I said if Southerners wanted to see them, they they would have to go up there. Honor to the Stalinist South before Stalin was even born. You didn’t think the C.S.A., slavery was good, Southerners knew how to treat you. They’d kill you. Burn down your house, your business. They owned the White women and the Black women. Murdered someone every time they put up a monument. 39 hundred of them. Really, I never thought about the flag. The monuments, I don’t like looking up to them. Nobody will buy them you know. Internationally you would think sculpture would be wanted by somebody. Nobody. They don’t have a price, priceless, nobody but a Nazi would buy any of them.

  4. Dwight Willis

    Here again we have a situation where North Carolina and South Carolina have decided to change places. South Carolina is becoming the moderate, more progressive state and moving ahead in education and commerce. North Carolina has become the old South Carolina and seems hell bent on self destruction. The North Carolina General Assembly has done irreparable damage to our K-12 school system and our university system, refused to provide health care for our most vulnerable citizens, raised taxes on the poor and middle classes in order to reduce corporate taxes, and the list goes on and on. It’s not surprising that South Carolina has decided to end the War of Northern Aggression and move on with their lives. North Carolina Republicans wanted to take their state back. I thought they only wanted to go back to 1950. It now appears that they intend to take us back to 1865.

  5. Wil Howard

    Recent events have awakened the public in the protection of and preservation of historical relics. A lot of us associate Civil War monuments and memorabilia with the days of slavery. Others counter with the statement that the Civil War was waged to protect states’ rights. Since the south overwhelmingly endorsed slavery, states’ rights embodied the right to have slaves. So whatever the opinion one has, it all goes back to an oppressive era where one race dominated and subjugated the other. Since we live in a free country and most all of us pay taxes to support the public grounds where the confederate flag flies and where confederate statues stand, let’s agree to allow them all remain in place and add statues and memorials honoring those who stood against slavery and fought to improve the lives of disenfranchised citizens. I recommend that we petition our legislatures, city and county governments to allocate space for memorials in the same locations as Civil War relics for past champions like Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, Harriett Tubman, Mary McCloud Bethune, Benjamin Mays, Nat Turner and the list goes on.

    • Mary Jones

      Since it appears that the statues are here to stay, I think adding monuments as you propose will be a good solution…more education for the public. There is also a movement to add plaques to the existing statues or buildings named after historical figures to “contextualize” them…historical markers to explain what they were fighting for along with facts about the person, flattering or not. If they were fighting for the right to own slaves, it goes on the marker. If someone was head of the KKK, it goes on the marker.

  6. j bengel

    Oxymoron of the day: “Thoughtful debate in the legislature”.

  7. Ken

    This rural white Democrat won’t vote for it.

  8. Nortley

    The party of “home rule” strikes again — this time defending monuments honoring a nation that attacked and waged war on the United States.

    And Republicans question Democrats patriotism.

    • Annie

      Go read any history book and find out who waged war on whom – the United States fired on Charleston to start the whole blasted thing off. After that, the Confederate States of America, an independent country, considered itself invaded and fought back. Any further, Nortley, you’d better not go until you’ve done some studying. You might also learn some English punctuation – Democrats’ patriotism, please.

      • Baahumbug

        Pretty sure you’re wrong on that, Annie. The Confederate army fired on a Union garrison on Fort Sumter.

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