Vote Along Racial Lines to Keep Confederate Statue in Yanceyville
Caswell County Commissioners Vote 5:2_______________
During discussion items, Commissioner Nate Hall shared a great deal of information including how Confederate statues often appeal to those who share the values it represents. "I think it's time it be removed," he said regarding the statue at Yanceyville Square.
Commissioner Bill Carter spoke up and said he had received a number of calls in support of leaving it in place.
Vice-Chairman David Owen also said most people who had talked to him were in favor of keeping the statue and not removing it the way neighboring counties have.
When the subject of "systemic racism" came up, Commissioner Hall shared a number of real life examples.
Owen said that Caswell County is 62% Caucasian with 61% electing Tony Durden, who is African American, as the county sheriff.
Commissioner Sterling Carter reminded the board that he has spent his life dedicated to history and recently looked up how the monument in Yanceyville came to be erected: he is totally opposed to removing it.
He explained that grandchildren of Confederate soldiers who died wanted a remembrance for their ancestors who really had no say whether to fight in the Civil War or not. During his research he also discovered that at least 12 soldiers from Caswell County chose to fight on the opposite side.
Commissioner Carter also pointed out that the Veterans Memorial being built now could potentially meet the same fate if people chose to single out one particular group of war veterans (some day in the future).
Chairman Rick McVey was adamant as he said he would rather remove all the statues in the square if one was singled out.
When Commissioner Hall made the motion to vote on taking the statue down, Commissioner Jeremiah Jeffries was quick to back him up and second the motion.
Theirs were the two affirmative votes to remove the statue while the other five votes were against it.
Source: The Caswell Messenger (Yanceyville, NC), July 8, 2020.
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"The Lost Cause"
A segment of the Caswell County population refuses to acknowledge that the Confederate statue on the Square in Yanceyville was erected during the Jim Crow era in the South to remind African Americans of their "status." They refuse to admit the revisionist history that ignores treason and slavery. They refuse to admit that the statue might be offensive to descendants of slaves.
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