WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina city has told the owner of a recently vandalized Confederate monument to remove it by Jan. 31 or face a possible lawsuit.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports the city's mayor, Allen Joines, announced at Tuesday's Emancipation Proclamation ceremony that the United Daughters of the Confederacy could face legal action if the group doesn't comply.
[ [RELATED: 'Cowards & traitors' written on Confederate monument] ]
State law makes it difficult to remove monuments on public property, but the Confederate Soldiers Monument is on private property.
Last week, someone wrote "cowards & traitors" on the statue's base. It was previously vandalized after the 2017 deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
[ [ALSO READ: History shared but unreconciled in city's Confederate statue] ]
Considering that and the confrontations over Confederate monuments elsewhere, the city attorney believes it creates a public nuisance.
The newspaper couldn't reach the statue's owner for comment.
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