As stated in our last episode, Controversial monuments and North Carolina unfortunately go hand in hand. The first Confederate memorial in North Carolina, an unnamed Confederate Soldiers Monument in Fayetteville, was built in 1868, only a few years after the south lost the war. Since then, Confederate memorials have been prominently displayed in the Tar Heel State.
Many of these monuments, as is the case with most around the country, are legally protected by a few laws that have gotten in the way of reconciliation. Although perceived as a cut and dry roadblock towards progress, there are still plans of action to make things better for North Carolina citizens who want these monuments taken down.
To speak to this, we sat down with James E Williams Jr. from the N.C. Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System.
The N.C. Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System (NC CRED) is an incredible nonpartisan organization that works across professional, political and ideological lines to develop strategies to reduce racial disparities in North Carolina’s juvenile and criminal justice systems.
The Monumental Project sat down with Mr Williams to speak on the legal landscape of Confederate monuments, recent cases that have caused controversy and what we can do to make a change on a local level. Enjoy!