Confederate descendants refile suit over monument

ATLANTA — The Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the organization’s Lawrenceville chapter and two individual members refiled a lawsuit this month against Gwinnett County over the removal of a Confederate monument from the Lawrenceville square.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans initially sued the county and each county commissioner last year, alleging the monument’s removal two years ago after a board vote was illegal. The organization withdrew that suit and refiled it against the county alone because the commissioners have sovereign immunity, said Martin O’Toole, spokesman for the state division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

O’Toole said the new suit also complies with the Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling in October that “community stakeholders” have standing to sue over the removal of Confederal monuments.

“We’re happy with the Supreme Court ruling because it gives us our day in court,” said O’Toole, who is also a leader of the Charles Martel Society, an Atlanta-based white nationalist organization.

The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed Sons of Confederate Veterans groups from two lawsuits over the removal of monuments in Henry and Newton counties. The Newton lawsuit was allowed to proceed with one resident as the plaintiff.

“Because the Sons of Confederate Veterans groups have not alleged anything resembling community stakeholder status and have alleged no other cognizable injury, they do not have standing,” Justice Nels Peterson said in the written decision.

The previous Gwinnett lawsuit did not attempt to prove the Sons of Confederate Veterans had sufficient community ties to sue, but the new complaint does.

The lawsuit says Major William E. Simmons Camp No. 96, the Lawrenceville-based chapter, has operated continuously since 1898. It includes a long list of the chapter’s local activities, such as regular meetings, services at the East Shadowlawn Memorial Gardens and presentations to historical organizations.

The chapter raised the money and contracted the construction for the Lawrenceville monument, which was erected in 1993. The group paid for subsequent repairs to the monument, including after incidents of vandalism.

Two members of Camp No. 96, Wayne Bagwell and Wayne Stancel, are also listed as individual plaintiffs in the new suit, which notes that both men are Gwinnett County taxpayers and registered voters.