A new poll from Elon University shows most North Carolinians favor keeping Confederate statues on public property.
The poll comes the morning after the controversial Confederate monument in Chatham County, the focus of recent fierce protests, was removed.
Sixty-five percent of respondents in the poll said the monuments should remain on public property while 35 percent said they should not.
The poll also found respondents sharply divided on the cause of the Civil War.
Despite a strong majority of respondents favoring the preservation of the monuments, an even larger percentage said they believe the statues should be properly contextualized.
Seventy three percent said they would support adding plaques that offer that context. Fifty-five percent said they would be for moving them to Confederate cemeteries or memorials. Only 37 percent said they would favor replacing them with monuments honoring Southerners who fought to end slavery.
“Our findings suggest that a compromise might have broad support in local communities grappling with controversies about Confederate monuments,” said Jason Husser, director of the Elon University Poll and associate professor of political science. “While we found a substantial majority do not want the monuments removed from public property, we found an even larger majority who support efforts to add context through historical plaques.”
