The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Obelisk gone, DeKalb to mark own history
County aims to add 25 ‘more inclusive’ historical markers to commemorate past.
Removing a Confederate monument from downtown Decatur is just the first step in DeKalb County reckoning with its history, government CEO Michael Thurmond said Friday.
The obelisk outside the Historic DeKalb Courthouse erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908 was dismantled Thursday night. A crowd of several hundred people gathered to watch it lifted off its pedestal with a crane. DeKalb County Judge Clarence Seeliger had ordered it removed last week, declaring it a public nuisance for repeatedly attracting vandalism and protest.
In a Friday news conference, Thurmond announced the county’s intent to add 25 new historical markers to create a “more inclusive history.” The county has 88 markers currently, and 80 are related to either the Civil War or World War II, Thurmond said. Some of the new markers will recognize black history, including the communities of Flat Rock near Lithonia and Shermantown near Stone Mountain, both settled and occupied by former slaves in the 1800s.
Thurmond has also commissioned two historians to write an official history of DeKalb for its 2022 bicentennial. That history will include the Native Americans who were forced out of DeKalb by federal removal programs in the 19th century, as well as the county’s role in the Confederacy and Civil War.
“We need an inclusive history,” Thurmond said. “We won’t always like what we read, but the important thing is that it will be based on fact.”
The monument removed Thursday night is still part of DeKalb’s history but should be placed in a “more appropriate” location instead of a downtown square, Thurmond said. It’s in storage while its next home is determined.
‘We need an inclusive history. We won’t always like what we read, but the important thing is that it will be based on fact.’ Michael Thurmond,
DeKalb County CEO
He thanked the activists who have for years asked the county to remove the monument and said the county will work with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who opposed the monument’s removal, and other “heritage groups” to determine where the monument should go.
“We declare that the Decatur Square is free of a monument that represented intolerance and bigotry and the enslavement of generations of people,” Thurmond said. “But as we celebrate, I encourage my fellow DeKalb County brothers, do not forget, do not overlook the fact that if we are to continue to progress, it must be on bridges of cooperation. We must open the lines of communication with those who may disagree with us, and we must rededicate ourselves to working together to fulfill the commitment.”
The Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans had planned to file a motion intended to stop the monument’s removal. Spokesman Martin O’Toole told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday morning that his group still plans to pursue legal action in the case.
Thurmond would not comment specifically about the case but said the county would fight any attempt to restore the monument to its spot on the Decatur Square.