Confederate statues could be moved from downtown Macon

Macon-Bibb County is looking to see if its two downtown Confederate statues can be moved to a more “suitable” location, county spokesman Chris Floore said.

The cornerstone of the original unnamed Confederate soldier statue was laid in 1878 at the corner of Mulberry and Second streets. The statue was moved about 75 yards away to its current location at the corner of Cotton Avenue and Second Street in April 1956, perhaps due to traffic concerns.

The statue is meant to honor the soldiers who fought for the South during the Civil War, and there’s another one near the Government Center on Poplar Street that pays tribute to the wives, mothers and daughters of those soldiers.

Those sentiments aren’t the first thing that come to mind for some elected officials, though.

For Macon-Bibb County Commissioner Virgil Watkins, the statues are a reminder of slavery and oppression.

“I find it to be an offensive piece of art that reminds me of a point in history where my ancestors were oppressed and were slaves.” Watkins said.

With plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to redevelop downtown areas into parks or new event spaces, Watkins wonders if having the statues remain in their current place is best for all residents when there are many negative views. He wonders if they could be moved to another location.

“I do want to be sensitive to the fact that it’s probably impractical to wipe out everything in our county that’s got a memory of the Confederacy,” he said. “But instances like those two parks we’re thinking of redeveloping, I think it’s a fair conversation to have.”

Watkins believes it would make more sense for the statues to be moved to Rose Hill Cemetery, where Confederate soldiers are buried.

Others believe that the statues are a part of the country’s history and should remain where they are.

“You can’t whitewash it away. If you do away with history, you will never remember the past. You never need to walk that path again. But if you take it away, sooner or later you’re going to walk it,” Macon-Bibb Commissioner Joe Allen said.

In 2015, former Mayor C. Jack Ellis proposed moving the statue on Cotton Avenue. Current Mayor Robert Reichert said at that time that the monuments were “built to honor courage and loyalty” and were “not in the same category as the other symbols that have been appropriated by hate groups.”

The Confederacy is steeped in Macon’s history, and these days people across the country are asking what visual reminders of that era are appropriate.

“I think slavery and the antebellum South is still and always will be entrenched in our memories, our history because that’s what a lot of these Southern and Georgia communities were built off of,” Watkins said. “I wouldn’t mind forgetting that at some point there was an actual argument ... as to whether or not I was a full human. If that were somehow forgotten, I actually wouldn’t mind that.”

Instead of focusing on taking down monuments, Commissioner Elaine Lucas believes the most important thing to do now is move forward.

“Rather than dealing with monuments that were put up by people who thought they were honoring somebody, ... I want us to move on and pay tribute to those people who truly deserve it,” she said.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Confederate statues could be moved from downtown Macon."