Push to remove statues stalls in rural America
CLINTON, La. — The statue of the anonymous Confederate soldier has stood in front of the white-columned East Feliciana Parish courthouse for more than a century, leaning on his rifle as he looks down on trucks hauling timber and residents visiting the bank across the street.
It withstood an attempt to remove it in 2016. The local doctor who asked the southeast Louisiana parish to move it lost two friends in the controversy, but the statue stayed. In 2018, a Black man who was a defendant in a trial petitioned to have his case moved, saying the statue was a symbol of racism. He lost that fight, and the statue stood.
Now, as protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis focus attention on the hundreds of Confederate statues still standing across the Southern landscape, officials in the rural parish of roughly 20,000
A statue commemorating fallen Confederate soldiers stands in front of the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse in Clinton, La. Officials in the rural parish recently voted to leave the statue where it is. people have voted 5-3 to businessman and minister and the reason I say that is leave the statue where it is. in Clinton, wants the statue that there is no way that we
In recent weeks, dozens of removed and thought can sit around and be on the Confederate statues have fallen the national spotlight on wrong side of history,” he said. across the country — often the issue presented a slight At least 63 Confederate in more liberal-leaning urban chance that parish officials statues, monuments or markers centers. But in many smaller would vote to move it. But have been removed from places like Clinton, the effort if not now, he thinks it will public land across the country to remove markers that many happen — some day. since Floyd’s death on May view as racist relics has stalled “I think that it has to come 25, making 2020 one of the or has yet to arrive. up again. It’s not a matter of busiest years yet for removals,
John Sanders, a Black ‘if.’ It has to come up again, according to an Associated
Press tally. Most were removed by government officials, though protesters have toppled some.
All but eight have come down in cities or metropolitan areas larger than 50,000 people. Most of the areas lean politically left, with 41 of the monuments removed in counties or equivalent areas that voted Democratic in the 2016 presidential election.
AP’S exclusive tally verified removals through government announcements, AP news coverage and other sources, then analyzed them based on census data and voting patterns.
Still, in a sign that the removal movement might be spreading, local governments in several less populous areas of Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina have recently approved removals but not yet taken down the monuments.
The sheer number of Confederate monuments still standing shows the enormous task for those seeking removals: More than 700 remain on public land, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.