I spent some time today reading The NandO archives from May, 1895, when the Confederate Monument was dedicated here. Read coverage of that and from the days surrounding the dedication. Here's a thread that provides some context of the times of how big a deal this was then ...

First, the May 21, 1895 edition of The NandO described the monument dedication, which happened the day before, as "a perfect day." Estimated crowd at 30K. "The shaft will forever stand as a monument" to the Confederacy.

Here's a closer look at how the monument was described back then. "One of the handsomest granite monuments in America."

A man named Alfred Moore Waddell was among the keynote speakers. He, according to the paper, "gave a masterly defence of the cause for which" the south fought.

Waddell, by the way, became the mayor of Wilmington three years later, after leading a coup that overthrew the local government there, one that included many Black elected officials. A true atrocity, that isn't even taught in N.C. public schools.

This is from a story, or editorial, it appears, that ran later in the week, celebrating the Confederate Monument. "The marble shaft shall stand through all the ages to tell of the bravery of the southern soldier." Note the "cause dearer to them than life."

In the days leading into the dedication of the monument, The NandO said it would be "the greatest day in the history of Raleigh."

Here's a story, or what passed for one at the time, about the Guests of Honor -- the Confederate veterans themselves. This was 30 years after the end of the Civil War. "They will receive the best of everything."

Leading into the day of the monument dedication, this story ran on the front page of The NandO. A national story about the lynchings of Black people.

Another story after the dedication. (Apologies for the blurriness.) Says, "Yesterday was not the end of the work begun by those who are chiefly instrumental in building the monument. It is the beginning."

Now here we are. As of today, 45,691 days have passed since that dedication on May 20, 1895. Workers are going up to attach the cables of a crane to the monument's granite obelisk. People are here waiting for it to come down.