“United We Stand” Memorial, Gatesville
The “United We Stand” monument is a granite panel 42 inches wide and 40 inches tall with a bevel top standing on a single 54-inch x 14-inch base.
Bevel Top: “UNITED WE STAND” / DEDICATED 2022 / BY THE CITIZENS OF GATES COUNTY, NC
Panel Face: “THE CIVIL WAR WAS A MAJOR EVENT IN US HISTORY THAT COST / THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS OF CITIZENS AND LEFT THE / LANDSCAPE IN RUINS. DESPITE LOSING THE WAR, THERE WAS / A MOVEMENT IN THE SOUTH DURING THE ERA OF JIM CROW / TO MEMORIALIZE AND HONOR VETERANS WHO SACRIFICED / THEIR LIVES FOR THE RIGHT TO SECEDE FROM THE UNION / WHILE DEFENDING THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY.
THE HONORS GIVEN TO THESE VETERANS IN THE PAST DO NOT / REPRESENT OUR VALUES AS OF TODAY. CITIZENS OF GATES / COUNTY VALUE UNITY, RACIAL EQUALITY, INCLUSION AND / ACCEPTANCE. WE ARE A COMMUNITY WHO RESPECT AND LOVE / EACH OTHER IN SPITE OF OUR CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND / POLITICAL DIFFERENCES. BEING AN EXAMPLE OF A GOOD CITIZEN / AND NEIGHBOR, WE LOOK TO SERVE AS POSITIVE ROLE MODELS / FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE.
“REMOVING THE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT WILL NOT END RACISM. / LET IT SERVE AS A REMINDER FOR WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE / ARE NOT. HATRED HAS NO PLACE IN GATES COUNTY. IN THE WORDS / OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. / “DARKNESS CANNOT DRIVE OUT DARKNESS, ONLY LIGHT CAN DO / THAT. HATE CANNOT DRIVE OUT HATE, ONLY LOVE CAN DO THAT.”
Gates County
May 21, 2022
36.403270 , -76.753290
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Bryant, Cal. “A More Perfect Union,” Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald (Ahoskie, NC), May 27, 2022 , (accessed September 5, 2022) Link
Bryant, Cal. “Confederate Statue Will Have Company,” The Roanoke-Chowan News- Herald (Ahoskie, NC), April 30, 2021, (accessed May 17, 2021) Link
“Unity Monument Unveiling Set May 21,” Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald (Ahoskie, NC), May 17, 2022, (accessed September 5, 2022) Link
Yes
Granite
Gates County
$4,000
Rev. Dr. Linwood Boone, a Gates County native and author who serves as the historian for the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association, was the featured speaker.
Following the massacre of nine African Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015 by white supremacist Dylann Roof, Americans, especially southerners, have reflected on and argued over the historical legacy of slavery, the Civil War, the Confederacy, and white supremacy. Monuments have been a particular focus of these debates and controversies, especially after the death of a counter-protester, Heather Heyer, at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 and after President Donald Trump expressed his opposition to the removal of Confederate memorials. Despite laws in many southern states intended to prevent or impede the removal or relocation of historical monuments, protesters and local community leaders have removed or relocated controversial monuments associated with slavery, the Confederacy, and white supremacy. The pace of the removal of controversial monuments accelerated sharply in 2020, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Against the backdrop of protests against police brutality and white supremacy across the nation, local authorities in many communities in North Carolina removed and/or relocated monuments that were the focus of civil unrest.
In April 2021, after several months of fact finding, the Gates County Confederate Statue Committee recommended to the county commissioners that the Confederate Statue remain at the current location. They also recommended that it be joined by a new memorial that contained wording that reflected the current diversity of the county. Both recommendations were approved by the commissioners.
The memorial is located near the intersection of Court Street (North Carolina Route 137) and New Ferry Road (County Road 1111), on the right when traveling east on Court Street, 112 Court St., Gatesville, NC. The Gates County Confederate Monument stands to the left of the sidewalk.
The monument stands to the right of the sidewalk to the main entrance of the Gates County Board of Elections building.
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