The North Carolina Historical Commission has scheduled a meeting for next week to discuss the future of Confederate monuments in North Carolina.

A spotlight has been on the commission after a 2015 law passed by the Republican-led General Assembly limited the movement of “objects of remembrance” in North Carolina. The law routed requests to remove monuments through the historical commission.

The state body held a meeting in September 2017 and considered a request from Democratic Governor Roy Cooper to remove three Confederate monuments from the old Capitol grounds. Cooper asked that the statues be relocated to a Civil War battlefield in Johnston County.

But at that meeting last fall, the commission created a study committee which initially was scheduled to bring a report back to the body this spring. The commission has not met since holding a public hearing on Confederate monuments in March.

A news release announcing next week’s meeting said the study committee will meet first, immediately followed by a meeting of the full commission.

While the commission has been discussing the monuments at the old Capitol grounds, much of the public focus has been on the Confederate monuments on the UNC – Chapel Hill campus known as Silent Sam.

“The commission has received requests from private individuals to relocate the ‘Silent Sam’ monument at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but has not received a petition from the university, the UNC system, or its governing body, the Board of Governors,” officials said in Wednesday’s release. “At this meeting, the commission may seek advice from legal counsel on the legal standing of individuals to bring these requests, but does not intend to address the merits of the requests at this meeting.”

The study committee meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 22, at 10 a.m. The meeting of the full historical commission will begin immediately following the study committee meeting. The meeting will be held in the first-floor auditorium of the Archives and History/State Library Building at 109 East Jones Street in Raleigh. Doors will open to the public at 9 a.m.

The meeting will also be livestreamed on the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Youtube page.

The meeting will coincide with the first week of the fall semester at UNC – Chapel Hill. A protest of Silent Sam is scheduled for August 20.