Associated Press

WINSTON-SALEM — Questions about the ownership of a Confederate monument that Winston-Salem officials want moved have arisen just days before a city-imposed deadline.

In a Jan. 25 letter, the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s North Carolina chapter asked the city attorney for a 60-day delay before filing legal action to force the removal.

The city had issued a Jan. 31 deadline.

The UDC has previously claimed ownership of the statue, but The Winston-Salem Journal reports a local historian recently unearthed news accounts in which the UDC gave it to a Confederate veterans group that no longer exists.

The UDC wants a delay to resolve who actually owns the monument and whether the state’s monument protection law applies.

Mayor Allen Joines says “a shorter delay” might be granted.