Georgia judge temporarily halts removal of Macon Confederate statues
A Georgia judge is temporarily preventing Bibb County from moving two Confederate monuments to a local park after a Macon man filed a lawsuit protesting the statues’ relocation.
Rucker Smith, the chief judge of the Southwestern Judicial Circuit, granted a temporary injunction to Martin Bell, who filed the lawsuit in Bibb Superior Court. The injunction prevents the county from doing anything to “move, obscure, deface” or let “harm of any kind” come to the two Confederate monuments, one at the intersection of Cotton Avenue and Second Street and a second at Poplar Street near city hall, both in downtown Macon. Smith hasn’t scheduled a hearing for Bell’s lawsuit yet.
Bibb County commissioners voted 5-4 on July 21 to move the two monuments to Whittle Park, near Rose Hill Cemetery after Maconites called for the statues’ removal following the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.
Bell 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.” He 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.”
In his lawsuit, Bell cites a Georgia law that restricts where local governments can relocate Confederate statues. He said he has received nothing but positive reactions to his lawsuit.
“I thought this is exactly the way it would go, the law is very specific on what it requires,” he said. “All responses have been very, very positive, haven’t heard any negative responses.”
Former Macon Mayor Jack Ellis, who led one of two efforts to remove the statues, said the lawsuit is “delaying the inevitable.” Ellis also criticized local judges for recusing themselves from the lawsuit.
“It’s wasting time and money and creating more divisiveness,” he said, adding that the effort to move the monuments would ultimately prevail.
The lawsuit also takes umbrage at the county recently 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 artwork installed around the monument as part of a #BlockTheHate event was designed, organizers said, to protect the monument from damage while promoting a message of unity and love. The artwork is now housed in the Tubman Museum.
Bell is the state commander of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars Georgia Society Inc., which is also listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The nonprofit corporation works to preserve Civil War monuments and “memories of the men and women of Georgia who served” in the war.
Smith was brought in to preside over the case after Bibb County judges recused themselves. The Community Foundation of Central Georgia is currently raising money to help fund the statues’ relocation.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 5:43 PM.
