Protesters want Confederate statue removed

Lauren Williamson stood beneath the shadow of the Confederate monument in downtown Franklin with one message.

“Franklin won’t be a place for all until we make it a place for all,” she said with around 250 protesters gathered in the square.

Students for Black Empowerment held a protest chanting “Chip has to go,” in the center of town on Friday night. The Confederate monument, colloquially known as Chip, has stood in the Public Square since 1899.

The group marched with signs and banners from Bicentennial Park to the base of the monument. The newly formed group in Franklin said they wanted the United Daughters of the Confederacy to move the monument from the center of town to a cemetery.

“I want the people of downtown to see how many people show up and come up for the removal,” co-founder Emmaline Scott, 18, said. “I think a visual of people coming out in person will make them realize how much people want the statue removed. I think it will show the UDC we are serious about this.”

Most recently, the city of Franklin and the Daughters of the Confederacy settled on a draft agreement as to who owned the monument and Public Square. With that agreement, the city will own the public square while the Daughters of the Confederacy will receive a deed for the ground underneath the monument.

It’s not clear from the Williamson County Clerk and Master or Judge James Martin’s office when the draft settlement will go into effect.

“Really, we just wanted a physical demonstration to show the statue shouldn’t be in the center of town,” co-founder of Students for Black Empowerment Nia Williamson, 19, said. “I think it’s important it’s youth-run because it’s us who is running the change in the country. We are following in the footsteps of activists before us in this town we love, and we want it to be a safer and better place. The statue makes me feel like an outsider, and it makes me feel like it’s not my town, though I know it is. It doesn’t represent my history, and what it does represent to me is the history if I was alive in 1899 I wouldn’t be heard or listened to.”

Across the street stood Janie Brown, 60, who said she’s lived in downtown Franklin all her life. She watched the protest wearing a Confederate flag vest and also draped one across the front windshield of her vehicle.

She and dozens of others counter-protested the event, saying they wanted the monument to stay where it was. Others drove around the square in their cars with American flags while yelling at the group they didn’t want the monument removed.