Protesters call for Confederate soldier statue to be removed from downtown Macon
A crowd gathered around the Confederate statue at the corner of Cotton Avenue and Second Street Monday night as part of a movement to remove the statue from downtown Macon.
Around 50 people held up signs with messages about the statue as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, calling for the statue to be moved from its location in the center of the city. The protesters hope a replacement statue would be more representative of Macon, honoring Little Richard or the Allman Brothers, protest participant Tyler Horne said.
“A monument in the city’s center is meant to be celebratory. So a heritage of hate is not something to celebrate,” Horne said. “This could actually be a beautiful spot to represent things in this town that we do like, that lifts up everyone and is a better representation of what Macon is in 2020.”
The statue originally was installed at the corner of Mulberry and Second streets in 1878. It was moved about 75 yards away to its current location at the corner of Cotton Avenue and Second Street in April 1956.
David Davis, a professor of southern studies at Mercer University, said that statues like the one in downtown Macon were installed throughout the south between the 1870s and 1920s as part of the Lost Cause movement. The effort was intended to change the way people remembered the Civil War, romanticizing the Confederacy and its ideology.
“It is really significant to think about where this monument and 100 of its kin were placed right outside civic sites like city halls, right outside courthouses. They were there to send a very specific message,” Davis said. “ This might be of the United States but it represents the South first. If you wanted to put a Civil War monument in the city of Macon, there are lots of other ways.”
This isn’t the first time people have called for the statue’s removal, including a recent effort in 2017. Laura Bell is the organizer of a GoFundMe collecting money to move the statue to a more “appropriate location like Rose Hill Cemetery” where Confederate soldiers are buried. Bell said she doesn’t want to erase history, but she also doesn’t believe it should be glorified in the middle of the city.
The GoFundMe has raised more than $3,000 in the past two days. Bell did not organize the protest, but she was happy to see others in the community recognize that the removal of the statue is important.
“We have already accomplished two things that they did not accomplish in 2017 I think, which is some money towards it so the city doesn’t have to pay for it and it shows community involvement,” Bell said. “This right here is not the seal of the United States. It is the seal of the Confederate States of America. It is a country that does not exist anymore. Why is it in the middle of our downtown? It is not our country.”
Valencier Brown came out to the protest with her two daughters to show support for the movement to remove the statue because she said it depicts a time of separation in the city’s past.
“I wanted to come out and support for change and for justice. Because there should be equality for everyone,” Brown said. “There should not be any type of depiction of separation and segregation in our community. I am here to support that cause.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 9:01 AM.