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Kentucky Confederate Monument Being Removed From University Of Louisville Campus

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 01:14 PST, May 2, 2016

A Kentucky Confederate monument is being removed from the University of Louisville campus. The massive statue, which commemorated the service of Kentuckians during the Civil War, was erected in 1895 and sits on municipal property.

The announcement of the removal of the Kentucky Confederate monument on Friday came as a big shock to local residents, Fox News reports. University of Louisville President James Ramsey and town mayor, Greg Fischer, made the announcement at a joint press conference. The Kentucky Women’s Monument Association gifted the monument to the city of Louisville.

“It’s time for us to move this monument to a more appropriate place,” the University of Louisville president said during the Kentucky press conference. The new location honoring those soldiers who fought and died in the Civil War has not yet been chosen. Once the Confederate monument has been taken apart and cleaned, it will reportedly be placed in storage until it finds a new home.

Both Jefferson Davis, the sole president of the Confederate States of America, and Abraham Lincoln were born in Kentucky. Davis and Lincoln both have statues bearing their likeness in the rotunda of the state capitol. After the Emanuel AME Church shootings last year, some activists called for the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue, claiming it represented racism — the measure failed.

Kentucky Civil War History — Video Documentary

Kentucky boasts 54 historic sites on the Civil War Trust’s War Discovery Trail, the VisitLex website notes. During the more than 10,000 military actions which reportedly occurred the Civil War, a total of 453 took place in Kentucky. The Bluegrass State was initially neutral in the war between the states, but ultimately saw more battles than Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland.

Kentucky is also home to the General John Hunt Morgan Civil War museum. Morgan was known as the “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy,” and led the highly trained group of men known as Morgan’s Raiders.

During the Civil War era, slaves comprised about half of the population in Kentucky. The slaves worked largely on hemp plantations, but were also “hired out” for factory work. A large slave market existed in Lexington from the 1830s through the 1850s. Today, a living history museum depicting the life of slaves and their living quarters exists at the Waveland State Historic Site. A small park in the Cheapside area commemorates the location where both slave auctions and abolitionist speeches took place.

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“I can’t tell you how happy I am,” Ricky Jones, a Pan-African professor at the University of Louisville, said. “I think this statue being on the campus is somewhat akin to flying the Confederate flag over the [university’s] administration building.”

What Jones deemed a “bronze eyesore” which “glorified” a low point in American history, others view as a heritage symbol which honors those who fought, for various reasons, for a state they loved.

Republican Kentucky Congressman Everett Corley told the press he is going to file a temporary restraining order to prevent the removal of the University of Louisville Confederate monument. The legal filing is expected to be delivered to the Jefferson Circuit Court later today, WKYT News reports. Congressman Corley is demanding that Mayor Fischer be immediately ordered to stop all efforts to remove the Kentucky Confederate monument and will reportedly cite irreparable harm to the community as grounds for the legal action.

[Image via dc_slim/Shutterstock.com]

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