Vietnam veteran James Mason told the Henderson City Council during Monday evening’s meeting that he thinks the two-story monument to Confederate dead on Young Street in front of the County Administration Building is inappropriate in what he termed a “time of divisiveness”.
The monument to Confederate soldiers is one of four war memorials in Henderson. Memorial Park on Garnett Street commemorates veterans of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
The Confederate monument is on Vance County property. Although the property lies inside the Henderson city limits, it has no direct authority over the monument.
Mason told members that he believes the monument would be more properly displayed in the Confederate cemetery in Kittrell, and he said that the city and county should take the memorial to that location.
The veteran said that eliminating the memorial from its current location would be “a step forward”.