“It’s almost like this is where the monument was meant to be in the first place,” said Eric Anspaugh, chair of the Franklin County NAACP.
The church’s erection and continuation in the Jim Crow South “It had to have been a radical thing,” Rev. Christopher Coates said.
There was much debate over where the monument would be placed, with Raising the Shade steering committee and town officials agreeing that the Veterans Memorial Park would be a suitable location for the project. However, there were also considerations for placing the monument at the Rocky Mount farmers market.
However, First Baptist Church intervened when the Raising the Shade committee and the Franklin County NAACP, which oversees the project’s funds, could not reach an agreement with the town. The 7-foot bronze statue hopes to honor not just the Black Union soldiers from Franklin County but the countless Black men who fought for the country and went unnoticed.
Now, a new monument will commemorate the service of Black soldiers in the Civil War, particularly those from Franklin County.
“It feels like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders,” Anspaugh said. “We’re celebrating.”
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Source: Black Enterprise
