ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A century-old statue of a Confederate soldier that is encased in a box outside a Rockville courthouse to protect it from further vandalism is going to be moved to private property.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said in a news release Tuesday that the county will cover the cost to relocate the bronze statue to White’s Ferry, a docking site on the Potomac River named for a Confederate general.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy gave the statue to the county as a gift in 1913. A wooden box was constructed over it after the words “Black Lives Matter” were spray-painted on it in July 2015.
Confederate symbols have come under increased public scrutiny since the June 2015 massacre of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
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