Civil War monuments to remain in place after vote in Charles City

Voters in Charles City County have elected to keep the Civil War monuments at the courthouse complex.

In a question posed by referendum, “Should the Board of Supervisors of Charles City County remove both the Civil War monument in from of the Old Courthouse and the Civil War monument inside the Old Courthouse?”, 2,360 votes (55.11 percent) responded with an answer of “no”, while 1,922 (44.89 percent) responded “yes”.

The vote by county citizens on the monument was of particular interest due to the circumstances of its connection to the Confederacy. In other localities, many government officials elected to remove monuments without consulting citizens, sparking a clash between those who want to keep those statues there and those who wished them to remove. Some of those localities are now facing lawsuits and are awaiting decisions by the court system.

In July, Charles City’s Board of Supervisors elected to send the item to referendum and let the voters decide on the status of the monuments.