North Carolina mayor videos toppling of Confederate monument

ENFIELD, N.C. (WTVD) -- The mayor of a town in Halifax County had a Confederate monument in his town bulldozed and removed while he broadcast it live on Facebook.

Mondale Robinson is the mayor of Enfield, which has a population of about 2,300 people.

"Death to the Confederacy around here," he said on Sunday in his video on social media. "Not in my town. Not on my watch."

The Veterans Memorial stood 10-foot tall and was made of marble. It was dedicated in 1928 to Confederate soldiers and veterans of World War I.

One side of the monument was engraved with a Confederate flag; the other side was engraved with a 48-star American flag and the symbol of the American Foreign Legion.

In the years after it's dedication, inscriptions have been added to honor veterans of World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War.

According to The Daily Herald, the town's board of commissioners voted 4-1 to remove the statue on Aug. 15. Still, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation told ABC11 it was looking into what happened at the request of the town's police chief and district attorney.

Robinson said the monuments initial purpose was to honor Confederate soldiers. He said despite added inscriptions after its initial dedication, the main purpose behind the monument was to honor a cause that Enfield does not support.

The engraved inscription on the monument did specify that it was to honor soldiers who "wore the gray," which would be Confederate soldiers, not Union soldiers. The full inscription read as follows:

"To the memory of the veterans of the ware between the states. We care note whence they came, dear in their lifeless clay, whether unknown or known to fame, their cause and country still the same, they died and wore the gray."