Maryland Removes Its Final Public Confederate Statue

It’s believed that Maryland has removed its final public Confederate monument, other than those remaining on private battlefields or in cemeteries. 

The 13-foot-tall Talbot Boys sculpture, a copper work of a boy holding a Confederate flag, had been featured on the lawn of the county courthouse for over a century. According to CNN, it had originally been constructed as a memorial to the fallen members of an Eastern Shore regiment during the Confederacy. 

Last year, the local NAACP branch filed a lawsuit for the statue to be removed, saying it was “racially discriminatory and unlawful.” It described that many visitors to the site felt the monument was “an unavoidable, painful reminder every time they enter and leave the courthouse during a trial, hearing, or public meeting, of the hateful legacy of slavery and those who fought to preserve it.” 

Following a fundraiser of over US$80,000 to pay for the moving costs by Move the Monument Coalition, the statue finally left its location this week, with shouts of “finally!” ringing out nearby from passing drivers. 

Ridgely Ochs, a member of the coalition’s leadership team, said that the effort to remove this particular statue came after the Black Lives Matter movement following George Floyd’s death in 2020. 

“We’re all extraordinarily and profoundly happy that it has happened. It’s gone. It went well. It was peaceful and respectful,” he said. 

[via CNN and Associated Press, cover image via Alan Kolnik | Dreamstime.com]