Qualla: Confederate Soldiers Monument (Durham, North Carolina)

Confederate Soldiers Monument (Durham, North Carolina): Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warren LeMay from Covington, KY, United States, CC0. On the afternoon of August 14, 2017, two days after a white supremacist drove his car into counter-protesters in Charlottesville and killed Heather Heyer, a crowd gathered in front of the old Durham County Courthouse on Main Street. Someone climbed the 15-foot granite base where the bronze Confederate soldier had stood since 1924. A rope went around the statue's torso. The crowd pulled, and the hollow bronze sculpture crumpled to the sidewalk. Durham police did not intervene. Within days, the sheriff's office had charged seven protesters with felony inciting a riot and misdemeanor injury to a statue. Within six months, every charge had been dropped.

Image: Warren LeMay from Covington, KY, United States | CC0

Confederate Soldiers Monument (Durham, North Carolina): The Boys Who Wore the Gray

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Watchman27514, CC BY-SA 4.0. The monument was dedicated on May 10, 1924, almost six decades after the war it commemorated had ended. The inscription on the front read In memory of "The boys who wore the gray." The right side read This memorial erected by the people of Durham County. The plinth held the bronz...

Image: Watchman27514 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Confederate Soldiers Monument (Durham, North Carolina): Charlottesville and the Rope

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit monsieuricon from Montréal, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017, ended with the murder of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal who had come out to counter-protest the white nationalist gathering. The footage of James Alex Fields driving his car into the crowd traveled fast. Acr...

Image: monsieuricon from Montréal, Canada | CC BY-SA 2.0

Confederate Soldiers Monument (Durham, North Carolina): What the Law Said

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0. North Carolina had passed the Cultural History Artifact Management and Patriotism Act in 2015, specifically designed to prevent local governments from removing Confederate monuments. The law required permission from the state Historical Commission and limited any approved relocat...

Image: Ildar Sagdejev (Specious) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Confederate Soldiers Monument (Durham, North Carolina): Shame

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, Public domain. On August 18, four days after the toppling, a piece of paper reading "shame" was taped onto the front inscription, so that it read In shame of "The boys who wore the gray." Below it, in marker, someone had written "Death to the Klan." Rumors of a Ku Klux Klan rally that day broug...

Image: self | Public domain