WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A Confederate monument controversy continued Monday afternoon, as a Forsyth County judge heard from the City of Winston-Salem and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) about a downtown monument.
The Confederate statue was taken down just two weeks ago, but the UDC wants it back up.
Different groups want different outcomes, but the City says, this is a matter of public safety. The judge ordered that all the legal motions in regards to the statue be continued to the end of next month, so both the city and the UDC have time to prepare their arguments.
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The ruling comes just days after lawyers for the UDC filed a second motion, where they allege the City manufactured controversy about the Confederate statue, and that the City used that as justification for removal. The UDC also wants the Winston-Salem city attorney removed from the case.
Monday in court, lawyers representing the UDC said, they were forced to take further legal action once the statue was wrongly removed, in their eyes.
North Carolina Division President for the Daughters of Confederacy, Sarah Powell says, the statue never posed a problem.
"I haven't seen any evidence of anything being stirred up because of it, no," she said, "I was very sad that it was being removed. Very sad. It was just unfortunate."
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The statue came down, carefully, on March 12. Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines says it's now in private storage, before being placed in the Salem Cemetery, which he calls an appropriate location - due to the 36 graves of Confederate soldiers there.
The next hearing will be April 29 in Forsyth County Superior Court.