RALEIGH, N.C. _ Thousands of people want a statue of the late actor Chadwick Boseman to replace a Confederate monument in his South Carolina hometown.
At least two Change.org petitions support tributes to Boseman. One that calls for a statue had more than 3,900 signatures as of Monday morning, and another that calls for a memorial garnered more than 9,700 signatures.
The calls for change come after the death of Boseman, a Black actor who starred in "Black Panther" and other recent movies. He had colon cancer for four years before he died at age 43, his official Twitter account announced Friday.
Boseman was born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina, roughly 30 miles southwest of Greenville. There, he rented out a theater to screen "Black Panther" at no cost, one of the petitions said.
"This film, along with his entire body of work, has uplifted and inspired many Black Americans especially during the turbulent times our nation is going through," the organizer wrote on Change.org.
In the same South Carolina city, a statue of a Confederate soldier has stood in front of the Anderson County Courthouse for more than a century, news outlets reported.
"With Chadwick Boseman's early passing, it is important that we honor a true local legend my (sic) immortalizing him in stone in front of the courthouse," one of the online petitions said. "The Confederate Monument belongs in a museum, but has no right to be displayed there."
The Confederate statue has been a point of renewed contention in recent weeks.
In June, a petition called for the monument to come down, calling it a symbol of racism, the Greenville News reported. On Change.org, a counter petition from the S.C. Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans said the push to remove the statue ignored history and that the monument served as "a memorial to those who would defy tyranny and fight for the freedom of the people of South Carolina."
Later in June, police said they investigated an act of vandalism after orange paint was found on the statue, according to the Independent Mail. South Carolina's Heritage Act could require two-thirds of state lawmakers to approve the monument's removal, the newspaper reported.
One of the latest petitions calls for the statue to be permanently moved to the Anderson County Museum, where an explanation of the monument's history can be on display.
"With help from the signers of this petition, I hope that it becomes apparent how popular this idea is," the organizer wrote. "It is time to unify Anderson around a true local hero and time to honor all South Carolinians, not just the ideals of a few."
Across the United States, conversations about the future of Confederate symbols resurfaced after the death of George Floyd on May 25.
Floyd, a Black man, died after a Minneapolis police kneeled on his neck. That officer and three others were fired and faced charges.
