The government of Caswell County, North Carolina is hereby petitioned to remove the Confederate monument statue located in downtown Yanceyville in front of the county courthouse. The statue, which is a symbol of white supremacy and the subjugation of African Americans, belongs in a museum or museum-like setting so that the public at large can learn more about slavery, the Civil War, and the legacy of Jim Crow discrimination relative to the county's history in particular. A suitable replacement memorial can be decided via public discussion.

The removal of the Confederate statue, no matter how opposed some are to it in Caswell County, must occur to protect public safety appropriately and to safeguard the economic well-being of the community. The counterargument of preserving and protecting "heritage," or the June 2020 effort to shield Caswell's citizens from the potential hostility of those who support the statue remaining where it is, by enacting a curfew in the downtown area via a state of emergency order, do not give the county a carte blanche or an indefinite license to continue displaying so prominently at the town's center such a hurtful symbol of racism and inhumanity. The county's behavior in this regard would serve to dismiss in effect those voices of dissent who are also taxpaying constituents, all while a legal precedent has been set by the state's governor to remove Confederate monuments in order to protect public safety. Many of the events concerning the latter are unequivocally analogous to the ongoing circumstances present in Yanceyville. 

We urge the government of Caswell County to take note of the many African Americans at present who do not attend the annual Bright Leaf Hoedown -- the largest festival of the year in the county that takes place every September in the Historic Town Square in Yanceyville -- in order to not be in the statue's offensive presence. Together we say, "Enough is enough!"

We urge especially fellow Caswell County citizens to see that prospective forward-thinking businesses will likely have little to do with our county if through inaction it appears to be protecting the legacy of white supremacy by way of the Confederate statue's continued presence in the town square. Again we say, "Enough is enough!"

Therefore, for the sake of the local economy, potential business investment in the community, and to do simply what is right to best protect public safety, we ask the government of Caswell County to turn its back on any complicity in the continued enshrinement of racist hatred and cruelty. We ask that it remove the Confederate monument statue in Yanceyville and welcome a new and inclusive vision of the future.