SALISBURY — Salisbury Indivisible has asked the City Council to once again consider relocating the Confederate monument — called “Fame” — from the median at Church and Innes streets.

“It is time for this remembrance of an oppressive and bloody misadventure to move aside,” the organization said in a letter emailed to the City Council. “The heart of Salisbury must stop looking back to the 19th century and instead cast its gaze forward to the 21st century and beyond.”

City spokeswoman Linda McElroy said the organization emailed the letter to council members at 9 p.m. Thursday.

McElroy said in an email response to the organization that the city is reviewing the issue.

Salisbury Indivisible — which has been called more of a “movement” than an organization — asked in the letter that City Manager Lane Bailey “arrange for the removal and relocation” of the statue.

“We request that the city work swiftly with the private owner to relocate the monument, filing a formal request with the North Carolina Historical Commission if necessary,” the letter said.

Because of a 2015 law passed by the N.C. General Assembly, historic monuments cannot be removed without legislative approval if they sit on public land. However, the city is unsure whether the land that the statue sits on is public property.

McElroy said in her response to the letter that the city has not yet reached out to the N.C. Department of Transportation to figure out who owns the land beneath the statue. But she said city officials have spoken with a local attorney to “review land ownership.”

Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell responded to the organization’s email to the council, saying it was “by far the most well-stated position I’ve ever read of the many sent to our body.” But she said she questions the group’s timing.

“In the heat of a campaign, I wonder how many will recognize the hard truths of your letter and advocate for the relocation of a long-favored icon of Salisbury,” Blackwell said. “Time will tell.”

Salisbury Indivisible said in its letter that it wants the statue to be put in a museum or a cemetery, “where all artifacts of the Confederacy belong.”

The letter, which bore no signature other than “Salisbury Indivisible,” said the organization’s request is one of “more than 100 similar requests by Indivisible chapters across North Carolina to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces.”

Contact reporter Jessica Coates at 704-797-4222.