Shreveport Confederate club sues over statues

SHREVEPORT — City officials who voted to remove a Confederate monument from the courthouse grounds in a northwest Louisiana parish were quickly sued by the group that commissioned the ornate memorial more than a century ago.

The Caddo Parish Commission voted 7-5 for the measure on Thursday after hearing nearly two hours of opinions about the monument erected in 1906 in a parish once called “Bloody Caddo” because so many black residents were killed during Reconstruction.

R.J. Johnson, chairman of a citizens’ advisory committee appointed by the commission, said moving the statue away from the parish courthouse in Shreveport “is about reconciling the community. This vote is an opportunity for us to shed our parish’s reputation as ‘Bloody Caddo,’” The Times of Shreveport reported.

But one of those against the move, Rex Dukes, told the commission, “Over 300 of my people, of my ancestors fought in the Confederate War; probably more than anybody else in this room. The monument needs to stay where it is,” KSLA-TV reported.

The monument features a larger-than-life statue of a young soldier on a pedestal, surrounded by busts of four Confederate generals on lower pedestals. A life-size statue showing Clio, the muse of history, points to a 3-foot-high book of remembrance which bears the words “Love’s tribute to our gallant dead.”

The United Daughters of the Confederacy’s Shreveport chapter filed suit late Thursday, news media reported.

The lawsuit contends that moving the monument would violate the organization’s rights to free speech, due process and equal protection under law, the newspaper reported. The right to equal protection is in the 14th Amendment, which was passed to protect the rights of freed slaves.

The lawsuit also contends that the United Daughters of the Confederacy owns the bit of land on which the statues stand, KTBS-TV reported, but officials said who owns the land is uncertain.