CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ A woman whose ancestors fought for the Confederacy has filed a federal lawsuit to block the removal of a Confederate soldier statue from outside the Gaston County Courthouse.
Lisa Rudisill made headlines last week by comparing the removal of Confederate statues to "ethnic genocide," no different than the Taliban destroying statues in Afghanistan. Rudisill was the spokeswoman for about 20 people who staged a peaceful protest Aug. 8 in support of the statue in Gastonia, about a half hour west of Charlotte.
Gaston County commissioners voted 6-1 Aug. 3 to gift the statue to the local Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter and have the county pay to move the statue.
On Wednesday, Rudisill filed suit in U.S. District Court in Charlotte to prevent the planned removal of the statue, saying the vote violated her civil rights to due process.
In her lawsuit, Rudisill cites an N.C. law that prevents the removal of such statues with only a few exceptions. A statue can be removed, for instance, if a government official determines the statue "poses a threat to public safety because of an unsafe or dangerous condition," according to NC General Statute 100-2.1.
Gaston County officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Rudisill blames COVID-19 for a low public turnout at the meeting where commissioners voted to move the statue, according to her lawsuit. That violated her constitutional right to due process, her lawsuit claimed.
The vote also was made in a "hurried" manner by commissioners "who were under duress" a few days after Black Lives Matter supporters "issued threats and displayed weapons" at the nearby Tony's Ice Cream shop, according to Rudisill's lawsuit.
Multiple law enforcement agencies were called to the ice cream shop last month after people for and against the statue confronted each other in a "civil disturbance," the Observer reported at the time.
To Rudisill, the statute represents a memorial to her "immediate ancestors" who fought and died in the Civil War, she said in her lawsuit.
Her great-great-grandfather Absalom Rudisill was wounded in battle and imprisoned for months, she said. His 17-year-old son, Caleb, was drafted and sent to Fort Fisher to fight in the last battle there in 1865, where he was killed.
Other ancestors also were "killed or crippled" after being drafted under the threat of execution ("some were"), according to Rudisill's lawsuit.
"Their sacrifices do not represent a support of or belief in SLAVERY, but rather the required service of soldiers just as in any other war which is memorialized here," according to her lawsuit.
Similar Confederate statue lawsuits claiming civil-rights violations have been filed elsewhere in the South this summer.
A Georgia man sued the city of Macon in late July to prevent the moving of a Confederate statue from a downtown intersection, the Associated Press reported. The lawsuit blamed "an unruly mob of protesters" who placed murals and graffiti for the government action, according to the AP.
In Richmond, Va., six residents in June sued to block Gov. Ralph Northam's attempt to remove the Robert E. Lee statue, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The residents claim the removal would lower property values in their historic district.
