This modern unreconstructed Neo-Confederate monument placed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans stands inside the fenced Confederate Cemetery in Elmwood Cemetery at Charlotte NC. It is dedicated to the Confederate soldiers of the of Mecklenburg County who served in the Confederate units raised in the county, most of which fought as part of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during the US Civil War.
The monument reads as follows:
"[Front]
CSA
1861 [Confederate battle flag] 1865
Mecklenburg County remembers with honor her gallant sons who fought in the armies of the Confederate States with the other brave soldiers of the South. they struggled nobly for the cause of independence and constitutional self-government. their heroic deeds will be forever honored by patriotic men and women.
Erected by the Confederate Memorial Association of Charlotte.
May 10, 1977
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Companies recruited in Mecklenburg for N.C. Regiments:
INFANTRY - Co. B &C 1st NC.; D 7th; A, E & H 11th; B 13th ; K 30th; G 34th;H 35th; G & I 37th; K 42nd; B 43rd; F 49th; B 53rd; K 56th; E 59th; 63rd NC
CAVALRY - Co. C, 1st NC; F, 5th
ARTILLERY - Charlotte Artillery
TROOPS FURNISHED - 2713 of a population of 17,374 in 1860."
There is a little more to this story of this monument, however: (
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Controversy occurred during the planning and approval process. The monument was placed in front of the Old City Hall apparently without the prior knowledge and approval of at least one council member, Harvey Gantt.
J. Larry Walker, Jr. had raised $706 dollars from veterans and historical societies to have the marker created and it was reportedly believed by him to have been approved by the city. The City Manager's Office subsequently said neither the monument nor its location on public property had been approved. At a city council meeting just a few days before the planned unveiling ceremony in May of 1977 and with the monument already having been installed on the lawn by its sponsor, both Walker and his wife expressed their ire at the bureaucracy and their belief in their right to dedicate a public monument to the Confederate heritage. City councilman Harvey Gantt, who had not been informed of the monument, was vocal at the May 16, 1977 meeting both in his sympathy for the frustrated Walkers but also in his stance on the inappropriateness of the site for the monument given the history of the city, its African American residents, and the Confederacy's fight to preserve the institution of slavery.
Harvey Gantt is an African American, a Democratic politician, and leader of progressive community initiatives in Charlotte and North Carolina. He served on the Charlotte City Council in the 1970s and 1980s prior to serving two terms as the City's first African American mayor. He subsequently made two unsuccessful bids for the United States Senate, losing to Republican Jesse Helms.
After the 2015 racially motivated mass murder of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, there was a call nationally for Confederate monuments to be removed. In response to that the N.C. Legislature passed a law signed by Governor Pat McCrory that prevents state and local government from removing an “object of remembrance” located on public property that commemorates a historical event. After the Charleston murders the Confederate Soldiers monument had been spray painted with the word “racist.” It had been removed for cleaning prior to the law being passed but not replaced on the old Courthouse grounds. This technicality allowed for Charlotte City Manager Ron Carlee to have the marker relocated to the Confederate section of Elmwood Cemetery with a grouping of other Confederate memorials."