Supporters of Confederate monuments in North Carolina have taken their message to the interstate.
The North Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans have placed a billboard along Interstate 40 asking supporters to “protect” Confederate monuments.
The group posted a photo of the billboard on its Facebook page. The ad shows a picture of Silent Sam – the Confederate monument on the UNC – Chapel Hill campus – with the words “Help us protect our veterans monuments.”
A letter that the group posted to social media along with the photo on Thursday said that, “More billboards will be appearing in the near future on the state’s highways as we defend the honor of our ancestors and inform the public of recent misguided efforts by our Governor and activists to politicize, remove, censor, and pervert Confederate heritage.”
The first billboard was placed along I-40 east near I-95 around Benson, North Carolina, according to the group.
The focus on Confederate monuments has been intense in recent months with continuous protests calling for the removal of Silent Sam from the UNC campus and the request from Governor Roy Cooper’s office to have three Confederate monuments removed from the old state Capitol grounds.
The process for removing monuments has been complicated by a 2015 law passed by the Republican-led General Assembly that prevents the moving of “objects of remembrance.”
The North Carolina Historical Commission, the state body that has been tasked with determining the future of the monuments, is handling Cooper’s request. A historical commission committee held a pubic comment period regarding Confederate monuments in late March and is expected to bring a recommendation back to the full board later this spring.
Photo via Sons of Confederate Veterans Facebook page
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