RALEIGH, N.C. _ A decision on moving Confederate monuments from Raleigh to Johnston County was put off until April.
The North Carolina Historical Commission voted 9-1 Friday to postpone the decision, giving it time to seek legal options on a 2015 law on monuments and statues, and issues related to relocation.
The law requires approval from the Historical Commission to relocate monuments, but some have described the law as vague.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, announced soon after the violent white supremacists rally in Charlottesville and a crowd toppled a Confederate monument in Durham that he would seek to move Confederate monuments that sit on state property.
The petition to move the 1895 Confederate Monument, the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy statue and the Henry Lawson Wyatt monument, which depicts the first Confederate soldier killed in battle, came from the N.C. Department of Administration. The Historical Commission operates under the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Both have leaders appointed by Cooper.
Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican, opposes the effort and said in a letter to Cooper that the Historical Commission does not have the authority under a 2015 law to approve their relocation.
Dozens of people attended the commission meeting, including some of the people charged with toppling the Durham statue.
Members of law enforcement searched members of the public before allowing them to enter the auditorium where the meeting was held.
