North Carolina county removes Confederate statue

A Confederate statue has been removed overnight from a historic North Carolina courthouse.

Chatham County officials issued a news release late Tuesday night saying work had begun to take down the soldier that stood in front of the courthouse in Pittsboro since 1907.

News outlets report that a subdued crowd of several dozen watched the work. Even the base of the statue was gone before dawn.

It has been rare for public officials to take down Confederate statues in North Carolina since the enactment of a 2015 state historic monuments law restricting the removal of public monuments.

But county officials argued in court that the monument was private property, owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and a judge hearing the group’s challenge declined to block the removal.