Statue with ties to 1898 Wilmington race riot removed

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — The statue of a former newspaper publisher, U.S. Navy secretary and lifelong white supremacist has been taken down in North Carolina.

The Raleigh News & Observer reported Tuesday that the statue of Josephus Daniels was removed from Raleigh’s Nash Square. The monument will be put into storage.

Daniels was listed as one of the causes behind the Wilmington Massacre of 1898, according to a state-sanctioned report.

The statue stood for more than 34 years.

It was installed 37 years after Daniels’ death in 1985.

The statue came down in the wake of protests that have followed the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.

Demonstrators have been rallying against police brutality and systemic racism.