Plaque in honor of George Floyd added to Confederate monument at the NC state Capitol

Carli Brosseau, Ashad Hajela, Ben Sessoms
·3 min read

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This story was updated June 11 at 12:55 p.m.

The base of the 75-foot monument to Confederate soldiers and sailors on the grounds of the North Carolina state Capitol glinted gold on Wednesday.

It was adorned with a shiny new plaque, a rededication of sorts. Where it once said, “To our Confederate dead,” it now says, “In honor of George Floyd.”

Floyd died May 25, after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck, despite his pleas that he couldn’t breathe. Video footage helped spark a nationwide wave of protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

A group of about 70 people gathered around the monument Wednesday evening — part of the now-daily protests that have sprung up in Raleigh since Floyd’s death.

The plaque reads: “We recognize the breakdown and the build-up that brought us together, and the change that has been put into motion.”

ÒIn honor of George FloydÓ reads the top of a plaque placed by members of a group called Raleigh United over a Confederate monument on Capitol grounds at the start of the 11th day of protests ignited by the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and since evolved address a wide range of issues, on Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2020, in Raleigh, N.C.

The project is the brainchild of a five-member group calling themselves Raleigh United. They are also behind the words “End Racism Now” painted in huge letters on Martin Avenue near Raleigh’s Contemporary Art Museum in the Warehouse District.

Asher Gannon, who came up with the inscription, said Raleigh United is trying to take back the power of the monument.

”It memorializes racism,” Gannon said. ”The plaque is a glimpse of the future. We want people to drive by and have hope for change.”

ÒIn honor of George FloydÓ reads the top of a plaque placed by members of a group called Raleigh United, standing together for a group photo, over a Confederate monument on Capitol grounds at the start of the 11th day of protests ignited by the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and since evolved address a wide range of issues in the Black Lives Matter movement, resulting in reforms adopted by the Raleigh Police Department and a task force formed by Gov. Roy Cooper, on Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2020, in Raleigh, N.C.

Since the protests spurred by Floyd’s death began, there has been renewed attention to taking down Confederate statues on public property, including in Raleigh. The monument on the Capitol grounds has served as both a meeting spot and a flashpoint for protesters, who have spray-painted its base and left their own signs to make sure their voices are heard.

”The ongoing glorification of the Confederacy through memorials on public property must end,” said Charman Driver, a board member at CAM Raleigh who is part of Raleigh United.

”America has had its knee on the black community for over 400 years, and it’s got to let go,” Driver said. “We want to breathe. We want our children to breathe. This is the place where elected officials come to make and pass laws for all the citizens of North Carolina, and they must listen to all of us.”

Victor Lytvinenko said the group had been trying to brainstorm “ways to be more positive in the way we talk about these monuments.” He and his wife, Sarah Yarborough, own Raleigh Denim and are part of Raleigh United.

He said the plaque is a temporary piece of art, one that might offer a solution for “something we’d want to see there.”

“It’s hard to raise a new generation in the shadow of racist monuments,” Lytvinenko said. “But we want to be positive, so we thought about what we would want here, and one potential vision we would be proud of. And this is one vision of that future.“

ÒIn honor of George FloydÓ reads the top of a plaque placed by members of a group called Raleigh United over a Confederate monument on Capitol grounds at the start of the 11th day of protests ignited by the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and since evolved address a wide range of issues in the Black Lives Matter movement, resulting in reforms adopted by the Raleigh Police Department and a task force formed by Gov. Roy Cooper, on Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2020, in Raleigh, N.C.

Protests bring action

It’s just one of a flurry of actions to follow the beginning of the protests.

On Tuesday, the Raleigh Police Department changed its use of force policy to ban chokeholds and strangleholds, The News & Observer reported.

Gov. Roy Cooper announced a task force on racial inequalities in the criminal justice system.

And legislators revived once-stalled bills that would allow more people to wipe old criminal convictions off their record and give judges more flexibility in sentencing people for drug crimes.

Monuments to white supremacy have been coming down across the world, from Birmingham, Alabama to Antwerp, Belgium.

Janae Young, a protester who went to the Confederate monument at the Capitol on Wednesday, wants to see that kind of change.

“All these confederate statues, I feel is offensive to our history, the black struggle,” Young said. “Why not change it to something that makes all of us feel comfortable?”