A Confederate monument in Durham was vandalized for at least the second time in four years.
The monument—which is located in Maplewood Cemetery, located on Duke University Road near West Campus, and was dedicated by The Sons of Confederate Veterans in 2015—recently had "cement or some sort of hard substance" smeared on it, The News and Observer reported. "Black Lives Matter" and "Tear it Down" were painted on it in 2015.
Last week, a UNC monument to slaves and African American workers was defaced with racist language and urine. Two people were arrested Monday on charges related to the incident.
The latest vandalism of the cemetery’s monument is just one of many incidents surrounding Confederate monuments in the Research Triangle area in recent years.
In August 2017, protesters toppled a Confederate monument close to Duke's East Campus. The statue was of a soldier donning a Confederate seal and was torn down amidst a protest that grew to 100 people. Three were charged with misdemeanors following the incident, but two of the cases were dismissed and the third defendant was acquitted.
That downtown statue came down in the wake of the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Va. that turned violent earlier in the summer of 2017, in which white nationalists protested the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue.
President Vincent Price condemned the violence that brought down the statue in 2017.
“What we have all seen in Charlottesville was a sickening display of hate, bigotry, racism and ignorance, which must be denounced in strongest of terms," Price said in a statement at the time. "We mourn the weekend’s terrible injuries and tragic loss of life. That these events occurred on and around the grounds of one of our nation’s great universities only adds to our dismay and deepens our profound sympathies.”
In August 2018, protesters toppled the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Confederate Silent Sam monument. UNC is still deciding what to do with the toppled monument. Former Chancellor Carol Folt resigned after she and the Board of Trustees recommended Silent Sam be housed in a brand-new $5.3 million building on campus. In her resignation, she authorized the removal of Silent Sam's base and plaques, which stood alone since the toppling.
Protesters took to the streets of Chapel Hill after Folt and the Board’s recommendation, which did not become a reality. The Board of Governors will further discuss the statue’s fate in May.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.