Leaders in Statesboro have decided to leave a statue of a Confederate soldier on the county courthouse square, where it has been since 1909.

Tuesday night's unanimous vote by Bulloch County commissioners comes after some residents sought to have the statue removed from the square in Statesboro.

The Statesboro Herald reports that the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the statue more than a century ago as a memorial to area soldiers who lost lives in the Civil War.

A Georgia Southern University political science major started the effort to have the statue removed, saying it is offensive and does not represent all of Bulloch County's residents.

The Georgia NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has called for the removal of all Confederate symbols from government property.

Tags: Statesboro, Bulloch County Courthouse, confederate statues