North Carolina
NC group file lawsuit to have Confederate monument with inscription 'faithful slaves' removed
COLUMBIA, N.C. — People who live in a small county in North Carolina have filed a federal lawsuit to have a Confederate-era monument to “faithful slaves” removed from outside the county courthouse.
The monument is a zinc statue resting on a base featuring a bust of Robert E. Lee and the inscription: “IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES.”
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, May 21, in the Eastern District of North Carolina by a group called The Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County.
The plaintiffs claim the public monument violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because it “expresses a racially discriminatory message.”
The inscription on the statue promotes a “pro-slavery message and a pro-Confederate message,” according to the lawsuit.
Jaelyn Miller, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told CNN she feels county commissioners have a responsibility to ensure that racist messages are not being displayed to the Black community.
“This is sort of the only monument in the country on public land that textually endorses slavery,” Miller said.
Ian Mance, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said the historical record is clear that the monument was meant to send a message.
“It was put up in the front yard of what was soon to be the Tyrrell County Courthouse, which opened a few months later, to communicate to people that members of the Black community could not expect to get justice inside of that courthouse,” he said.
The lawsuit alleges the construction of the monument and the county’s continued maintenance “communicates, on behalf of local government, the idea that Tyrrell’s institutions regard Black people’s rightful place as one of subservience and obedience” and that “Black people who were enslaved in Tyrrell County preferred their slavery to freedom.”
The lawsuit also claims that the county’s display of the message has “incite(d) racial hostility” and endangers the plaintiffs’ safety.
The monument has been standing since 1902 and the lawsuit is the latest move in a decades-long battle to have it removed from courthouse grounds.
Mance said the plaintiffs have been attending commission meetings since the 1990s and holding demonstrations since 2019.
“Litigation was our last resort,” Sherryreed Robinson, one of the plaintiffs said in a news release announcing the suit. “We have peacefully voiced our objections for years. This monument says our ancestors preferred slavery to freedom. That’s a false and hurtful message for the government to communicate.”
The monument was unveiled in 1902, nearly 40 years after the end of the Civil War. The event brought together politicians, officials and Confederate veterans, and was described by newspapers at the time as the “most momentous occasion ever celebrated in the county of Tyrrell,” the suit states. That day, Thomas Gregory Skinner, a U.S. congressman and veteran of the Confederate army, gave a dedication speech marked by a “masterly defense of the cause of the South,” according to the University of North Carolina’s online inventory of the state’s monuments, shrines, and commemorative public art.
The removal of Confederate monuments gained momentum in North Carolina and across the nation after the death of May 2020 death of George Floyd.
North Carolina
North Carolina man extradited to Pa. for $100,000 ATM theft spree: police
A 42-year-old North Carolina man on Tuesday was extradited to Pennsylvania after state police said he stole more than $100,000 from ATMs in Snyder and Union counties.
Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Antoni J. Garcia-Cordoba, of Raleigh, North Carolina, stole from four ATMs at Central Penn Bank and Trust locations, state police said.
In a five-hour span, Garcia-Cordoba took $43,000 from three separate ATMs in Snyder and Union counties, according to a police report. On Oct. 1, he stole an additional $58,000 from an ATM in Titusville, bringing the total amount stolen to $101,000.
Garcia-Cordoba is charged with two counts of corrupt organizations – employee, a first-degree felony, and two counts of theft by unlawful taking, a third-degree felony.
After being in custody at a jail in Boone County, Missouri, Garcia-Cordoba was extradited to Union County on Tuesday.
He is being held in the Union County Prison after being unable to post $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026.
North Carolina
11 firefighters and 2 others injured after North Carolina house fire and explosion
SALISBURY, N.C. — Eleven firefighters and two other people were injured in a house fire explosion in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, officials said.
Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said firefighters did not have life-threatening injuries but were getting treated for contusions, concussions and smoke inhalation following the fire Monday evening. Two other people were taken to the hospital, but Parnell said he didn’t know their conditions and couldn’t confirm whether they were in the house at the time of the fire.
The Salisbury Fire Department responded to the single-family home around 5 p.m. and found it engulfed in flames.
Eleven of the 22 firefighters at the scene went inside the house to search for occupants and “get water on that fire,” which preceded the explosion, Panell said at a news conference.
“It was enough force that the outside walls blew out, the roof came up and went back down,” Parnell said.
An investigation of the fire and explosion is continuing.
North Carolina
Harrison Bertos scores in OT to help Washington beat N.C. State 3-2 and win first Men’s College Cup
CARY, N.C. (AP) — Harrison Bertos scored 1:54 into overtime after Washington blew a two-goal lead in the second half, and the Huskies beat North Carolina State 3-2 to win the Men’s College Cup at First Horizon Stadium on Monday night.
It was the first national championship for unseeded Washington (16-6-2), who became the first team to win six road matches in the tournament — beating six seeded teams along the way under the guidance of coach Jamie Clark. The Huskies won in their second trip to the final after losing 2-0 to Clemson in 2021.
No. 15 seed N.C. State (16-3-4) made the final for the first time behind coach Marc Hubbard. The Wolfpack were aiming for the school’s first national championship since Jim Valvano led the men’s basketball team to the title in 1983.
Zach Ramsey scored unassisted with 1:12 remaining in the first half and Washington took a 1-0 lead into the break. It was only the second time this season that N.C. State trailed at halftime.
Ramsey scored into an empty net after Wolfpack goalkeeper Logan Erb couldn’t corral the ball at the top of the box. It was Ramsey’s second goal of the tournament.
Richie Aman sent a cross to the center of the goal and Joe Dale knocked it in for a 2-0 lead in the 62nd minute.
Donavan Phillip answered in the 66th, scoring with an assist from Nikola Markovic to cut it to 2-1 with his fourth goal of the tournament. The Wolfpack entered 11-0-1 when Phillip scores.
Taig Healy scored the equalizer with 3:28 remaining with assists from Justin Mclean and Calem Tommy.
Egor Akulov had an assist on Bertos’ winner.
Huskies keeper Jadon Bowton, the only remaining player from the 2021 squad, had five saves.
Erb saved six shots for N.C. State, which was the last school to concede a goal this season.
The temperature was 28 degrees when the match between two teams that had never faced each other began.
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