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Wednesday marked the beginning of the end of years of intense controversy over a Confederate symbol at the heart of Portsmouth, a majority Black Southern city.
A thread: https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/vp-nw-portsmouth-removes-confederate-monument-20200826-q57r5l2k3vcwvnl2wn7il6l2au-story.html
A thread: https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/vp-nw-portsmouth-removes-confederate-monument-20200826-q57r5l2k3vcwvnl2wn7il6l2au-story.html
1/ A crew removed parts of the Confederate monument in downtown Portsmouth on Wednesday. The top part of the structure was down by around 10 a.m.
2/ The monument debate reached a boiling point this summer while demonstrators across the country held weeks of protests to denounce police misconduct as part of a movement triggered by the May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
3/ Portsmouth’s monument was seriously damaged during a June 10 protest, during which people beheaded its four statues, and has since been surrounded by a fence. https://www.pilotonline.com/news/vp-nw-portsmouth-confederate-monument-20200610-65p7wr3nkvcrneaotwycjygcqu-story.html
4/ In late July, the City Council voted unanimously to remove it from Olde Towne and put it in storage, but the city did not announce that would begin happening Wednesday.
5/ Standing by the monument Wednesday morning, James Boyd, president of Portsmouth’s NAACP chapter, praised its removal and said it was “a good day for African Americans.”
6/ For five years, efforts to remove the monument have been shaped by three fatal events: the 2015 slaying of nine Black people at a church in South Carolina, the 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville and, most recently, Floyd’s death.
7/ Following the 2015 shooting, former councilman Mark Whitaker proposed removing the monument. https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/article_f3171686-66dc-5576-8f5f-32e7b67fb50e.html
8/ A legal fight ensued after Confederate monument supporters hired a lawyer and sent a letter to the city warning it not to move the sculpture. https://www.pilotonline.com/news/article_19d4baf5-9c8b-5eb7-998c-2b3bddc59a7d.html
9/ After the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, demonstrators gathered in Portsmouth and Norfolk, targeting Confederate monuments in both cities. City councils in Norfolk and Portsmouth then voted in favor of moving the monuments. https://www.pilotonline.com/government/local/article_9aa70882-c68d-52b3-8e87-b361e64ff377.html
10/ But it wasn’t clear whether the city had the legal right to do it. That changed in April after Democratic legislators took control of the General Assembly last year and gave cities the power to move their monuments so long as they solicit public input.
11/ Eventually, Portsmouth claimed ownership of the monument after no one else would. Council members voted in July to move it.
https://www.pilotonline.com/news/vp-nw-portsmouth-confederate-monument-vote-hearing-20200729-6g5ji5ujbvb5tbcgs4nuaoc44q-story.html.
https://www.pilotonline.com/news/vp-nw-portsmouth-confederate-monument-vote-hearing-20200729-6g5ji5ujbvb5tbcgs4nuaoc44q-story.html.
12/ By about noon on Wednesday, two of the monument’s granite statues had been taken down and loaded onto a truck.
