‘Remove hate from America.’ Protesters seek removal of Confederate statue in Cornelius.

Dozens of demonstrators called for the removal of a Confederate statue that has stood in Cornelius for over a century, with the town’s mayor and the Mecklenburg County sheriff lending their support to the cause.

Sheriff Garry McFadden, who is Black, spoke in ringing tones outside the Cornelius Town Hall Wednesday evening about his experiences with racism, recounting how the threats of violence he received after his election drove his wife to purchase a gun for the first time.

“We are here because we are trying to remove hate from America, and we want to start with Cornelius,” McFadden said.

The statue, which was erected in 1909, depicts a Confederate soldier standing at parade rest on an obelisk directly in front of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church on South Main Street.

Cornelius Mayor Woody Washam didn’t attend the protest, but a speaker read a statement Washam had written supporting the statue’s removal.

“As mayor, it is important to me that each person in all our community feel safe, respected and supported within our town. It is for that reason that I support the removal or relocation of this local Confederate monument,” said Sue Rankin-White, organizer of Unity in Community, reading the mayor’s statement.

Other notable speakers included Corine Mack, the president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP, as well as two historical reenactors who staged a mock debate between Confederate veteran Armistead Burwell and abolitionist Bishop James Walker Hood.

While calls to remove the statue have grown louder in recent years, the church doesn’t own the statue or the ground it stands on.

Instead, this tiny, fenced-off parcel of land is the property of the Mount Zion Monument Association, the Observer has previously reported.

Jonathan and Angela Marlowe, Mt. Zion’s co-senior pastors, issued a statement in June 2020 urging the Mt. Zion Monument Association to “consider the harm their monument causes to our Black brothers and sisters,” Cornelius Today reported.

Wednesday, members of the church carried an orange banner reading “Take Down the Confederate Monument” as demonstrators marched from Town Hall to the church half a mile away.

Representatives from the Mount Zion Monument Association did not speak or demonstrate at the rally. Donald Archer, the association’s chairman, declined the Observer’s request for comment Thursday morning.

Archer told the Observer in June 2020 that the group was reviewing what to do with its statue.

“In today’s politically charged climate, many people do not view this memorial as a significant and valuable piece of history. Due to this climate, the association is exploring all options available to protect and save this significant part of the history of Mecklenburg County and … North Carolina,” he said in a statement.

‘Veterans’ monuments deserve respect’

The protest had some detractors.

Before delivering the mayor’s statement, Rankin-White read aloud a threatening letter that she said she’d received that morning.



“Your Unity group, in your sick attempt at attention, created a situation that will not end well. You can only poke a dog so long before it bites back,” she read.

Toward the end of the rally outside Town Hall, a man shouted at the demonstrators before law enforcement officers escorted him away. Another man, with a sign reading “Veterans’ Monuments Deserve Respect,” stood in front of demonstrators at the Confederate monument.

The counter-protester, who only identified himself as Mitch, spent much of the rally arguing with protesters, including a Vietnam-era veteran. Demonstrators held signs in front of his reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Your Ancestor Was Wrong.”

Mitch, a former Marine who said he’s a veteran of the war in Iraq, compared the Confederate statue to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He said he doesn’t morally agree with that war, but he still believes its veterans should be honored and memorialized.

He said he would similarly support memorials to Nazi veterans in Germany.

Conquering Ally troops banned the display of symbols in support of Naziism in 1945, McClatchy News reported. The Federal Republic of Germany made this law in 1949.

Prior controversy

The Confederate statue has been been vandalized at least twice in recent years, the Observer has reported. In 2017, a Davidson man was charged with spray painting a blue “X” over the words “Our Confederate Soldiers” on the pedestal. Then, in July 2020, three suspects were arrested after the words “racist” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter, were scrawled over the monument.

The 2020 arrests occurred just hours after leaders of the United Methodist Church in Western North Carolina released a joint statement calling for the statue’s removal.

“The argument that these monuments are simply a part of some people’s heritage is actually a reminder and legacy of the shame, hate, intimidation and degradation of a whole people,” the leaders wrote.

A rally against the Confederate monument attracted over 150 people a week later, on July 14, 2020, Cornelius Today reported.