Share Your View on What to Do with Confederate Statue

Montgomery County residents are being asked to share their ideas on should be done with the embattled Confederate soldier statue in Rockville.

The 1913 statue has been targeted this summer by vandals who painted the phrase ”Black Lives Matter” and other graffiti on the statue’s base. The monument sits near the Red Brick Courthouse.

»What do you think should be done with the Confederate monument? Tell us in comments.

Confederate memorials have been the target of scorn after a man gunned down nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C. church in June. Dylan Roof posed with a Confederate battle flag in online photos and spoke of his desire for a new race war.

The potential sites for the statue are:

• Beall-Dawson Historical Park in Rockville.
• Callithea Farm Special Park in Potomac.
• Darnestown Square Heritage Park in Darnestown.
• Jesup Blair Local Park in Silver Spring.
• The Edgewood Farm (privately owned) in Gaithersburg/Unity.

County Executive Ike Leggett and Council members are asking residents to submit their opinions on the five proposed sites by Wednesday, Sept. 9. The leaders will consider those comments before Leggett meets with the City of Rockville’s Historic District Commission on Sept. 17, reports Montgomery Community Media. Leggett plans to ask permission from the Historic District Commission to move the statue.

Send your comments on the statue to: Council President, Montgomery County Council, Re: Confederate Statue, 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850, or by email to county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov.

“We share County Executive Isiah Leggett’s view that the statue does not belong in the center of government outside the courthouse and believe it should be relocated to a site where we are able to tell the full story of Montgomery County’s participation in the Civil War from all perspectives, including those of both Confederate and Union supporters, as well as free blacks and slaves,” said County Council President George Leventhal in a news release.