Tri-state lawmakers vote against removing statues
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to banish statues of Confederate figures from the U.S. Capitol in a bipartisan effort to remove historical symbols of racism and oppression from public spaces.
Seventy-two House Republicans voted for the measure, which passed 305-113.
All the no votes were from Republicans, including all representatives of the Chattanooga metro area.
All seven Republicans from Tennessee decided not to vote to remove the statues. Representatives Scott DesJarlais (R-South Pittsburgh), Mark Green (R-Brentwood), Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), Chuck Fleischmann (R-Ooltewah), David Kustoff (R-Memphis), Phil Roe (R-Johnson City) and John Rose (R-Cookeville) voted against the measure.
Rep. Tom Graves, a Republican Congressman in Georgia’s 14th District, and Mo Brooks, a Republican Congressman in Alabama’s 5th District, also voted against the measure.
Fleischmann told the Times Free Press on Thursday that he felt the issue shouldn’t be decided by the federal government but by individual states.
Each state is allowed to send two statues to the Capitol to be featured in the¨ Fleischmann said he has given countless tours to thousands of visitors and has voted in the past to give states a third statue.
Tennessee’s two statues are of Andrew Jackson, a War of 1812 hero also known for his harsh treatment of Native Americans as president, and John Sevier, Tennessee’s first governor and a slave holder.
Georgia’s statue selections honor surgeon and anesthetist Crawford Long and Alexander Hamilton Stephens, who
and Alexander Hamilton Stephens, who was vice president of the Confederacy.
Following the death of Civil Rights icon and Georgia Rep. John Lewis, there has been a push to replace Stephens’ statue with one of Lewis.
Federal law gives state leaders, not members of Congress, the authority to replace the statues. Graves agreed with Fleischmann that states should make the decisions.
“If a state delegation wants to recommend a change, their state legislature deserves input in the decision,” Graves said in a statement to the Times Free Press. “I support removing the Stephens statue and replacing it with John Lewis, so that his 60-year legacy of fighting for civil rights and justice is permanently represented in the U.S. Capitol. I intend to advocate for this in a bipartisan way, with the input of our General Assembly, that unites people behind a positive change.”
Graves added, “The bill that was sprung on us yesterday was done for the sake of partisan politics, and not a good faith effort. There was no effort to engage the many states that would have their statues removed from the Capitol grounds. I hope we have the opportunity to resume work on this in a genuine way that heals our nation rather than deepening our divisions.”
Confederate statues, flags and relics have been thrust into the national spotlight in the wake of the May 25 death of George Floyd in custody of Minneapolis police. Protests across the nation have demanded racial equality, police and criminal justice reform and advocated the removal of symbols of the country’s racist past from places of public admiration.
In Dalton, Georgia, local activists are trying to relocate a statue of Joseph Johnston, a Confederate general, from the town square.
The House legislation, spearheaded by Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland and the majority leader, would mandate the removal of “all statues of individuals who voluntarily served” the Confederacy.
Fleischmann said the bill will be “dead on arrival” in the Republicancontrolled Senate, and that this isn’t the right time to address the issue.
“The Democratic majority in the House, with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic uncertainty in this country, I believe should focus on something more important,” he said. “I’m open to continued discourse on the topic, but I don’t think the timing of it was appropriate.”
The measure specifically identifies five statues that would be removed. One is a bust of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who delivered the majority Supreme Court opinion in the landmark Dred Scott case, ruling that slaves were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court.
Hoyer’s bill would replace the bust with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat from North Carolina, said on the House floor that the decision Taney delivered “was arguably the worst opinion that the Supreme Court of the United States has ever, ever handed down.” Butterfield’s great-grandmother was a slave.
Paul Mitchell, a Republican from Michigan who voted for the measure, said on the floor the history of the United States is “fraught with racial division, with hatred.”
“The only way to overcome that is to recognize that, acknowledge it for what it is,” he said.