A statue honoring Confederate veterans in Albemarle, North Carolina was vandalized overnight. 

The memorial, located in a downtown park, was spray-painted with the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and a quote attributed to Archbishop Gregory Aymond: “Jesus lived in a time of racism, and he spoke and acted courageously in contradicting the norms of the day. So must we.”

“Sometime between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. some unknown persons spray painted some quotes on the statue in downtown Albemarle,” Albemarle Police Chief William Halliburton said late Thursday morning. “We will be investigating it further.”

The memorial, which features a Confederate “common soldier” statue, was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1925.

“Any type of graffiti or vandalism — it happens to our property, it happens to city property,” said Shannon Johnson, executive director of Albemarle Downtown Development Corporation. “It costs money and it costs the community. It costs everyone when things like this happen.”

However, just whose money will go toward cleaning the memorial remains uncertain. 

The ADDC doesn’t own the statue, Johnson said, nor does the city.

B.J. Drye writes for the Stanly News and Press in Albemarle, N.C.