Public hearing on Confederate monuments proposal next week

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The public can address in person next week members of a committee examining the proposal by Gov. Roy Cooper's administration to move three Confederate monuments from North Carolina's old Capitol grounds to a Civil War battlefield.

Committee members meeting Monday by telephone set rules for their March 21 public hearing in the auditorium of the North Carolina State Archives in downtown Raleigh. The meeting will last up to three hours, with each speaker getting one minute.

The five-member panel plans to report on the proposal next month to the full state Historical Commission, which makes the decision on Cooper's proposal to move the monuments to the Bentonville battlefield site in Johnston County.

Citizens can also file written comments on a website . More than 3,700 messages already have been received.