RALEIGH, N.C. _ Dressed as a Union soldier, William Thorpe led a group of 25 protesters Tuesday who called for the immediate removal of Raleigh's Confederate monument, describing it as a symbol of slavery, sedition and treason.
His Union Soldiers Campaign seeks a symbol at the downtown Capitol Square that symbolizes freedom for all, and he chose the Northern uniform as tribute to those who fought to expand that freedom.
Protesters formed a ring around the 75-foot statue as Thorpe circled them with an American flag.
"The grievance we have is a Confederate statue on state grounds," he said, "representing racism, slavery, sedition, treason. What is the best representation of the ideals and values of America?"
He led the group, dressed in black, some wearing tactical belts and carrying holstered pistols, on a march to the state Board of Elections on Salisbury Street, where they hoped to encourage voter registration.
"I can't breathe!" they chanted, locking arms as they marched. "Justice for George Floyd!"
Protesters have targeted Confederate monuments and statues depicting white supremacist politicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The tallest, facing Salisbury Street, is covered in spray-painted graffiti: "Take It Down," "George Floyd" and "Fire Deck-Brown," a reference to Raleigh's police chief.
All Confederate monuments on the North Carolina Capitol grounds were placed there at least 30 years after the Civil War ended. A law passed under former Gov. Pat McCrory restricts moving them from those grounds and other government property.
Thorpe was active in the drive to replace the Silent Sam statue from UNC-Chapel Hill's campus, where he proposed replacing the Confederate soldier with a university flag. He said Tuesday that something must replace Raleigh's monument to Confederate dead: perhaps a Union soldier.
"The question becomes what do you replace it with, even if it's just air," he said. "We've been bombarded by this propaganda for 105 years. What basically would be the antithesis of a Confederate soldier? A Union soldier."
Thorpe offered a nod to the blacks who fought on the Northern side during the Civil War _ roughly 179,000 by the National Archives' estimate.
As they marched, Thorpe shouted out the names of blacks killed by police, vigilantes or in other violent incidents, and the other protesters shouted them back in unison. "Trayvon Martin! Tamir Rice! Eric 'I Can't Breathe' Garner! Sandra Bland! Philando Castile! Walter Scott!"
The streets were mostly empty downtown Tuesday, but a few passing cars offered honks of support.
