EASTON, Md. (AP) - Maryland's last public monument honoring Confederates who fought for the South during the Civil War is coming down.
The Baltimore Sun reports that the century-old “Talbot Boys Statue” on the Eastern Shore will be hoisted off its base by a crane on Monday.
The 13-foot tall, copper sculpture features a boy holding a Confederate flag and names the Talbot County men who joined the Confederacy and died in the war. It's located on the county courthouse lawn in Easton.
The Talbot County Council voted to approve its removal in September. A group called Move the Monument Coalition raised $80,000 to relocate the statue to a private park in the care of Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, a nonprofit. The monument will go to Cross Keys Battlefield in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where it will remain.
Many memorials to the Confederacy have been taken down in the wake of the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. The monuments have long been viewed by many as symbols of white supremacy.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said that around 700 Confederate statues are still positioned by government buildings and in other public places throughout the U.S.