Confederate memorial removed from Maryland courthouse
BALTIMORE -- A confederate memorial was removed from outside the Circuit Courthouse in Ellicott City overnight Monday, CBS Baltimore reports.
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman said in a Facebook post that the memorials belong in a museum.
"It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that memorials such as this are hurtful to many residents in our community and elsewhere," Kittleman said in the post. "Given these feelings and the tragedy in Charlottesville, I felt compelled to remove this memorial from public property."
Kittleman ordered the removal of the memorial late Monday after completing the historic review process. He filed a request with the Historic Preservation Commission to take this step last Wednesday.
County officials say plans have been in the works for more than a year to remove the monument, but just hours after members of the Howard County NAACP vowed to be at the statue until it was gone, it was.
"Honestly, I didn't think it would happen the way it did," said Willie Flowers, with the Howard County NAACP.
It came just hours after members of the Howard County NAACP called for it to be removed.
"I do think more people are waking up and seeing Maryland, and seeing Howard County as part of the world, instead of just holding on to history that is basically dead," Flowers said.
Howard County is the latest jurisdiction to remove Confederate symbols, after just last week, Baltimore removed four statues.
A statue of former Chief Justice Roger Taney was removed near the Maryland State House in Annapolis.
The move comes after a deadly protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month, when white nationalists protested the city's decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee.
Dirt is all that's left of the monument that honored 92 Howard County men who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but we've learned the monument is now on the move.
It's moving just across the street, to the Museum of Howard County History, where it will be part of the museum's new Civil War exhibit.
"We historians and professionals who knew it was there, knew this day would come," said museum director Shawn Gladden.
Gladdens says while the monument tells a story of the county's past, he believes it was time for it to go.
"Every artifact tells a story," Gladden said. "And a lot of times, there's many stories behind it."
Gladden hopes that other statues and monuments brought down in recent weeks are not destroyed, but moved elsewhere.
It is not yet known when the statue will be moved over to the museum.
