Supervisors Vote To Keep Confederate Monument Outside Courthouse Despite Calls For Relocation

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-Emotions were running high during Monday’s Lowndes County board of supervisors meeting.

The topic, the confederate monument outside the courthouse.

District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks made a motion to have the monument relocated within 90 days.

The motion failed in a 3 to 2 vote.

While he’s disappointed, Brooks said he’s not surprised by the board’s decision.

“To me that monument serves no intrinsic value, and all we were saying is move it to Friendship Cemetery,” said Brooks. “We’re not talking about tearing it down, it’s a more appropriate place for it to be, so here we are delaying the inevitable.”

“First off I don’t think the statue needs to be removed,” said Harry Sanders, board president and district one supervisor.

Sanders was one of the three supervisors that voted against the motion.

He believes the confederate monument should stay because of its historic value.

“I don’t think that anything needs to be forgotten about how slavery was not right, I’m not saying it honors the south or anything, it honors the people who died during the war between the states, and I don’t think it’s something that needs to be forgotten,” said Sanders.

“I’m pained by the reality that it reflects a part of the history of this state that many of us are not proud of,” said Bishop R.J. Matthews, who came to the meeting in favor of monument being relocated.

After the board’s decision, the Lowndes County Chapter of the NAACP and other community leaders who were in favor of the removal, held a press conference voicing their frustrations.

They believe moving the monument to Friendship Cemetery is ideal because it still gives people a place for public viewing.

Along with the removal, they’re also asking that a new monument, one that unifies the state as a whole, replace the current one outside the courthouse.

“There comes a time when an appeal for decency and respect for all people is necessary, even when it’s not necessarily a popular opinion amongst a certain group,” said Bishop Scott Volland, who advocated for the monument’s relocation during Monday’s meeting.

“To be given a 90 day window for a removal, and when it was time to vote on that motion it was an immediate dismissal of it without true concern, true hearing, true consideration, that is unacceptable,” said Matthews. “We as a community, as voters have voices and we have to use them.”

The monument has stood outside the courthouse since 1912.

Those who are calling for the removal of the statue also said they want to see the state adopt a new flag.

The board is set to meet again on June 30th.

At this time it’s there’s no word on whether this issue will be addressed again during that meeting.