VALDESE, N.C. — The debate to remove or preserve Confederate statues, which has been documented extensively, particularly in the Carolinas, will take a prominent role on Super Bowl weekend.
As Atlanta prepares to host Super Bowl LIII, civil rights groups plan to hold a rally the day before the game to demand Georgia lawmakers give individual communities the right to choose whether to take down Confederate monuments.
"Georgia has 159 counties. There are 92, which have these symbols and monuments so we have work to do," Richard Rose, president of Atlanta's NAACP, said. "But this work is about the uniting of America. United we shall stand."
The announcement came as another rally took place in front of a North Carolina Confederate soldier monument, this time in Winston-Salem.
Activists, including Lillian Podlog, called for the statue to be removed.
"This statue represents racism," Podlog said. "It represents the disinvestment in black communities we see in Winston-Salem."
Sons of Confederate Veterans member Bill Starnes, who lives in Gaston County and traveled to the rally, defended the statue.
"Anybody who has done the research, true research, looking for the truth of the matter, knows that the war was not about slavery," Starnes said.
For several months, the Sons of Confederate Veterans have been raising Confederate flags on private land next to major highways to protest the removal of monuments across the nation, including "Silent Sam" at UNC-Chapel Hill.
"We don't want to put one up out in the woods somewhere where nobody will ever see it," Starnes said. "We do like to have them in locations where they'll be seen."