Confederate statue to be removed from outside courthouse

ROCKVILLE, Md. – A century-old statue of a Confederate soldier that stands outside a Maryland courthouse will be moved to private property.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said in a news release Tuesday that the county will cover the cost to relocate the bronze statue from the courthouse in Rockville to White’s Ferry, a docking site on the Potomac River named for a Confederate general.

Confederate symbols have come under increased public scrutiny since the June 2015 massacre of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy donated the statue to the county in 1913. A wooden box was constructed over it after the words “Black Lives Matter” were spray-painted on it in July 2015.