In the wake of the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville Va., Maryland officials removed a Confederate memorial outside of a courthouse in Ellicott City.
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman shared on Facebook more than a dozen photos of the memorial being removed from the Howard County Circuit Courthouse grounds on Monday evening.
“It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that memorials such as this are hurtful to many residents in our community and elsewhere,” Kittleman said. “Given these feelings and the tragedy in Charlottesville, I felt compelled to remove this memorial from public property.”
Howard County Circuit Court Judge William Henry Forsythe Jr., whose father’s name is on the memorial, approved its dedication in 1948, according to Kittleman. No county officials played a role in the dedication.
Kittleman said that he filed a request with the local historic preservation committee to remove the statue on August 16 and removed it immediately after receiving approval.
Earlier this summer, the city of Rockville, Md. also quietly removed a statue of a Confederate soldier from outside its courthouse after several years of debate.
The Ellicott City announcement comes less than a week after crews quietly removed multiple Confederate statues overnight in Baltimore.
Although she was criticized for bypassing approval from the Maryland Historical Trust, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh told The Washington Post that she conducted the stealth operation because “we all are seeing lessons via the media of uprisings and violence, and violence is not what we need in our city.”
Nearly two weeks ago, white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville to protest the removal a General Robert E. Lee statue. The violent demonstration to the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer; two Virginia State Police troopers also died in a helicopter crash while on patrol during the rally.
Charlottesville officials voted on Tuesday morning to cover the statues of General Lee and Stonewall Jackson with black cloth after a contentious public meeting, The Post reports.
Kittleman said that Howard County’s memorial will donated to a local museum to be displayed alongside other artifacts and information on the Civil War.
“We cannot and should not erase the past. We must learn from it,” he said. “A museum offers context for us and for future generations to better understand our shared history.”
