Confederate monument will stay outside Gaston County Courthouse, ruling says

GASTONIA, N.C. — A Confederate monument will stay outside of the Gaston County Courthouse for now.

According to a ruling that came down Friday, a lawsuit filed by the North Carolina NAACP in November 2020 was struck down. The lawsuit called for the removal of the Confederate Heroes Monument, which was built in 1912, from the front of the courthouse.

The judge said the monument can be removed, but the law doesn’t give him grounds to enforce that.

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Controversy has swirled around the three-story statue for years, especially following the Charleston church shooting in 2015 and then again in 2017 when residents petitioned to remove it.

In a 6-to-1 vote in June 2020, county leaders decided to gift the monument to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. But when the organization declined to participate, commissioners voted to keep it.

The lawsuit filed in November 2020 argued the monument’s prominent public location in front of the Gaston County Courthouse violates rights protected by North Carolina’s constitution. It also says the monument “exalts the cause of slavery, secession and white supremacy.”

The plaintiffs also argued that the statue was a threat to public safety. But in Friday’s ruling, the judge said the monument does not prevent the courts from operating openly and freely. He pointed out the fact that the plaintiffs themselves sought legal action in the same courthouse.

According to the ruling, state statutes prohibit relocation or removal of an “object of remembrance,” which is what the monument is defined as.

Attorneys for those who want it removed say the judge can declare the law unconstitutional, adding that the monument is a symbol of white supremacy.

“Service in the Confederate Army was not military service. It was treason,” said Gagan Gupta, an attorney for the plaintiff.

“To convey a message that Black residents were second-class citizens,” said Stuart Paynter another plaintiff’s attorney.

Those attorneys produced a study they say indicates Black people overwhelmingly feel unwelcome at the courthouse because of the monument.

That’s certainly the case for Jose Troche and his wife, who both joined the lawsuit.

“It doesn’t belong here,” he said.

He said he and his wife, who’s Black, passed by the monument when they went to the courthouse to get a marriage license.

“Why are you reminding us of the Confederacy when I should come here to apply for a marriage with my wife?” he asked.

The ruling concludes that the county failing to remove the statue doesn’t violate the North Carolina constitution, which is what the NAACP alleged. However, the judge said the law does allow Gaston County commissioners to move it, and that’s where the issue stands now.

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