Macon man files lawsuit to halt moving of Confederate monuments in downtown
A Macon man filed a lawsuit Monday in an effort to halt Bibb County’s plans to move a pair of Confederate monuments from prominent locales in downtown to a park beside Rose Hill Cemetery.
Martin N. Bell, who filed the lawsuit in Bibb Superior Court, described himself in the 11-page civil filing as the leader of the “Military Order of the Stars and Bars,“ a non-profit corporation aimed at preserving Civil War monuments and “memories of the men and women of Georgia who served” in the war.
He is, among other things, seeking help from a judge to stop the county from moving the monuments — one of a soldier at Cotton Avenue and Second Street and another marker at First and Poplar streets — which it voted to do earlier this month.
The lawsuit names as defendants Mayor Robert Reichert along with commissioners Al Tillman, Larry Schlesinger, Elaine Lucas, Bert Bivins III and Virgil Watkins Jr.
Bell, 66, claims in the lawsuit that “the proposed moving of the Monuments is a racially-motivated action designed for political purposes to placate the mob mentalities current in American society.”
Bell contends that the monuments are not discriminatory and notes that “some black and mixed-race Bibb Countians fought for Georgia and Bibb County in the two battles that took place in Bibb County during the War.”
The lawsuit also takes umbrage at the county recent allowing “erection of plywood walls around the Soldier Monument and thereafter conspired with others to get ‘protesters’ to obtain a ‘permit’ from Macon to have such barrier continued and to paint insulting graffiti thereon.”
The filing continues, claiming that the county encouraged paintings on the barrier, allowing people to paint messages that include “the crudely spray-painted insult: Losers don’t get Trophies.”
The lawsuit also claims “the people of Bibb County will suffered (sic) irreparable injury or damages as a result” of the monuments being moved.