Statue now behind bars

Last week, the six-foot fence surrounding the Civil War monument at the Historic Old Randolph County Courthouse in downtown Asheboro was removed and replaced with an eight-foot, hand-built metal fence. 

The six-foot fence had been erected after graffiti had to be removed from the white base of the statue on Nov. 28. 

The statue has been the subject of much controversy, with local citizens asking for its movement off courthouse grounds to somewhere else in the county and the Asheboro City Council passing a resolution seeking the same outcome. 

Randolph County commissioners, however, have expressed their desire to keep it in place. Though it is in the middle of the city, it is on county land and thus commissioners have control of its destiny.