DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on the debate over the future of Confederate monuments in North Carolina (all times local):
2:40 p.m.
The North Carolina Senate’s top leader is skeptical about scrapping a 2015 law that prohibits permanently removing Confederate monuments from public property, as Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper called for earlier this week.
Republican Senate leader Phil Berger wrote in a column released Thursday that “an impulsive decision” to pull down monuments wouldn’t be wise. Berger says the legislation sought to reduce politics in decisions about monuments on government property.
The law was passed after the Confederate flag over the South Carolina statehouse was removed following the race-based slayings of nine people at a Charleston church.
Cooper said the Civil War’s important history belongs in textbooks and museums. He says the monuments should come down following last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Demonstrators toppled a Confederate monument in Durham on Monday.
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12:40 p.m.
A Civil War history group has denounced Gov. Roy Cooper’s call to take down Confederate monuments in North Carolina and says it will offer rewards for information about those who damage statues when “our government fails to act.”
The North Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans issued a statement about Cooper, who this week called on the General Assembly to repeal a law prohibiting the permanent removal of these monuments on government property.
The veteran descendants’ group says Cooper’s comments disregard contributions of people “who made this state what it is today” and who fought for homes and families “against an oppressive government.”
Cooper said Tuesday it was time to stop glorifying a war fought to defend slavery and worried about public safety following a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and the toppling of a Confederate monument in Durham.
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11:35 a.m.
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Duke University has been defaced.
The Lee statue of in the entryway to Duke Chapel had scuff marks where someone struck it. Part of its nose is damaged.
Duke officials discovered the vandalism early Thursday.
Lee’s likeness is one of 10 historical figures lining the main entryway to the neo-Gothic church. The others include religious leaders and two other historical figures of the American South, Thomas Jefferson and poet Sidney Lanier.
Duke President Vincent Price said in a statement he had already been discussing how to deal with strong reactions to the statue, but says it’s wrong for someone to vandalize a house of worship.
The university is investigating and reviewing video from outside the chapel. Security has been increased.
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