Confederate statues in Bibb County will be moved to a park near Rose Hill
The Macon-Bibb County Board of Commissioners voted to approve a resolution to move two monuments in downtown Macon that are affiliated with the Confederacy.
The vote was 5-4 with Commissioners Al Tillman, Bert Bivins, Elaine Lucas, Larry Schlesinger and Virgil Watkins voting yes. Joe Allen, Mallory Jones, Scotty Sheppard and Valerie Wynn voted against the resolution.
“You inspire people, and you get them to work together towards some of these larger problems that we face of poverty, crime, homelessness, so the cost of this entire project I think would be money well spent if it would pull together and unite this community in an effort to be inclusive and to show that we are progressive, to show that we are warm and welcoming and inclusive of all members of our society. I think that message would be worth its weight in gold going forward and showing that we want to do the right thing, and we want to move forward,” said Mayor Robert Reichert.
The original resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Virgil Watkins, would have developed Cotton Avenue Plaza and required the Confederate monument of an anonymous Civil War soldier at the corner of Cotton Avenue and Second Street to be moved to Whittle Park on Riverside Drive.
“If we’re going to say Black Lives Matter... we got to work on equity issues,” Watkins said in a Telegraph article about the original resolution. “We want to move on and start talking about how to actually achieve equity and inclusion in our society for all people, and those types of symbols are things you can’t have if you want everyone to feel like they’re fully included in your community.”
How the resolution expanded
During the Committee of the Whole meeting on July 14, Reichert proposed an amendment to the resolution that was approved at Tuesdays meeting.
The monument located in Proudeit Park near the intersection of Poplar Street and First Street will be moved in addition to the Confederate monument in Cotton Avenue Plaza when funds are allotted, according to the resolution. The resolution includes a provision that if additional time is needed to prepare the sites for the statues at Whittle Park, the statues will be moved to a temporary storage facility for their protection and preservation.
The Proudeit Park monument was dedicated “to women of the South” by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is debossed with the years 1861-1865, the years during which Georgia seceded from the United States, according to the resolution.
It will be moved to create a roundabout at the intersection of First and Poplar streets, according to the resolution.
The amended resolution also includes several improvements to Rosa Parks Square, including the installation of a Rosa Parks statue, a water wall and a stage area.
The entire project would cost $5 million and would be carried out in phases starting with the development of Cotton Avenue Plaza.
The Macon-Bibb County Commission believes around $3 million can be raised from private donors and grants with $900,000 coming from funds owed for the purchase of the Willie Hill Annex Building and $1.1 million that was previously allocated for infrastructure improvements in the Central City Commons project, according to the resolution.
A resident’s GoFundMe campaign to have the statue removed has raised more than $8,000, which was the original goal.
The resolution states that moving the monuments to the new location will help protect the monuments from future vandalism, and it helps “to promote or protect the safety, health, peace, security, and general welfare of Macon- Bibb County and its inhabitants,” according to the resolution.
The barrier that prohibits moving monuments
The resolution cites the Georgia laws that restrict cities and counties from removing monuments, which has prevented the Confederate monument in Macon from being moved in the past.
The exceptions in the law to move monuments include moving the monuments for the construction of roads or streets, which is why the resolution proposes moving the monuments.
If the monuments are moved, they have to be moved to a place of “similar prominence,” according to the Georgia law.
History of the statue
The statue, constructed in the late 1870s, stood at the intersection of Second and Mulberry Streets before being moved to the intersection at Cotton Avenue in the mid-1950s to improve traffic flow near the Bibb County Courthouse, according to Telegraph archives.
Civil War-era artifacts were found in a box in the base of the statue when it was relocated, including a letter from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Confederate bonds, old newspapers, coins and pictures.
After making copies of the contents inside the box, it was put back into the base of a statue with a photocopy of an additional letter from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The long road for removal
Several protests have been organized for the removal of the monument in past years, and after the slayings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, more protests mounted.
A former mayor of Macon, Jack Ellis, called for the statue at Cotton Avenue Plaza to be moved at a protest in June, according to a Telegraph article.
“We’re not asking to put it in a dungeon. We’re not asking that it be thrown in the Ocmulgee River. We’re not asking that it be desecrated,” Ellis said. “We ask that it be put in its proper place, and that’s Rose Hill Cemetery, where those soldiers are buried and where this belongs because it, too, is dead. This era is dead, dead and gone. Put it in the cemetery where it belongs.”
Macon artists also constructed murals surrounding both statues. The murals have recently been moved to the Tubman Museum.
“This is a project that represents everyone, represents Black Lives Matter, and we want people to understand that when we say that it’s not a… everybody else doesn’t matter, but right now we are dealing with a crisis,” said Tiara Ponce, one of the artists. “We have to even the playing field.”
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 8:25 PM.