Confederate group sues to block removal of Chatham monument

The United Daughters of the Confederacy has filed suit to halt Chatham County's plans to remove a Confederate monument outside the county courthouse.

The county Board of Commissioners voted in August that the statue must go, and they gave the UDC's Winnie Davis Chapter, which donated the statue to the county in 1907, until Oct. 1 to submit a proposal for what to do with it.

The deadline passed without a plan, but the UDC submitted recommendations for areas surrounding the monument on Oct. 15. Because the proposal didn't address relocating the monument itself, the commissioners voted Monday to reaffirm their decision for the county to move the statue itself if the UDC doesn't do anything by the end of next week.

The monument and its pedestal will be considered "a public trespass" if they are still on courthouse grounds as of Nov. 1, officials said. The county would then remove them and put them in storage until the UDC found a place for them.

Barbara Pugh, president of the Winnie Davis Chapter, has maintained that the statue is county property and cannot be moved under a 2015 state law governing public monuments.

The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday, seeks a temporary restraining order and an injunction against the Board of Commissioners to prevent the monument's removal. County officials declined to comment on the pending suit.

The monument's removal has sparked an intense debate in Chatham County.

Six were arrested at protests over the monument in the past month, and more than 100 people on both sides of the debate rallied outside the courthouse last Saturday.

Also, some monument supporters have raised a couple of Confederate flags near Pittsboro in recent weeks. One flagpole was cut down, but supporters had it back up within a day.