A granite marker at the graves of Confederate veterans has been removed from a cemetery in Hollywood, Calif. after threats of vandalism.
The marker, placed in 1925, was taken to an undisclosed location, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Hollywood might seem like an odd place for a Confederate marker controversy - California had been a state for only 11 years when the Civil War broke out, and entered the Union as a free state - and the cemetery is known as the final resting place of celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Micky Rooney and even the dog who played Toto in "The Wizard of Oz." More recently, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and "Golden Girls" actress Estelle Getty have been buried there.
The Confederate marker near the veterans' graves hasn't warranted much attention in past years. "I don't think a lot of people were aware of its presence," Theodore Hovey, cemetery spokesman and family services counselor, told the Times.
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After the paper's recent editorial about California's connections to the Civil War, the cemetery started fielding outraged calls demanding the marker be taken down and threatening to vandalize it. Someone wrote "No" across the bronze plaque with a marker, and the Daughters of the Confederacy had it removed shortly thereafter.
“All we wanted was peace, quiet, as we had for many years,” a Daughters of the Confederacy spokeswoman, who didn't want to be named, told KNBC. “Cemeteries should be respected.”
The marker read "In memory of the soldiers of the Confederate States Army who have died or may die on the Pacific Coast. Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget — lest we forget."
Following the violence in Charlottesville, Va., when protesters and counter protesters clashed and 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed when a car rammed through a group of pedestrians, Confederate monuments and statues came down overnight in Baltimore, while the mayor of Lexington, Ky. promises statues there are coming down soon.
In Atlanta, protesters damaged the Peace Monument in Piedmont Park, a structure erected in 1911 to champion unity, not venerate the Confederacy.
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