The Confederate Soldiers Monument (“The Boys Who Wore Gray”) was a memorial to the soldiers from Durham County who fought for the Confederate States in the American Civil War. The monument was erected in 1924 – nearly sixty years after the end of the Civil War – in front of the Old Durham County Courthouse as part of the coast-to-coast network of confederate monuments designed to intimidate African Americans and uphold white supremacy.
As part of nationwide demonstrations that followed the fatal attack on counter-protestors at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Durham monument was pulled down on 14 August 2017. Others were to follow.
Sam Durant, Durham, 2017 (2018) Graphite on paper, 132.1 x 162.6 cm © Sam Durant, Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo. Photo: Makenzie Goodman
