Mayor Hardie Davis’ task force on the Confederate monument is urging the Augusta Commission to relocate the monument, and the commission may vote on the matter at the Sept. 7 meeting.
The task force first released its 40-page report calling for the monument to be moved in June, but the commission took no action at the time.
After waiting the required 90-day period, the group, represented by John Hayes and Corey Rogers, came back before the administrative services committee stating the reasons they felt the monument should be removed from its prominent spot on Broad Street.
MORE: Response to the Mayor’s Task Force on Confederate Monuments
Hayes claimed a “critical mass” of citizens wanted the 76-foot tall monument moved but did not produce any evidence such as a petition. According to Hayes, moving the monument is the moral thing to do.
“It’s just the right thing to do. Back in 1878, the people that created the monument thought they were doing the right thing. They thought the Confederate States of America was the best country they could think of. On the monument, they put, ‘No Nation Rose So White and Fair. None Feel So Pure Of Crime.’ We’re not stuck with that. We can say in 2021, 160 years after the Civil War started, ‘We don’t want that on a public street. We don’t need it,’” Hayes said.
According to Hayes, the task force determined that the best location for the monument was a city-owned cemetery.
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The task force also recommended moving the Confederate monument on Greene Street as well as changing the names of Gordon Highway and Calhoun Expressway, actions that would require approval of the state legislature.
A group of citizens who belong to Save Our Monuments In Augusta, Inc. showed up with signs to protest the monument’s removal. Russell Gambill represented the group, which has 3,000 members on its Facebook page.
“To say that a majority of people in this city want to spend a lot of money to relocate this piece of art downtown when we have a budget deficit is a fallacy,” Gambill said. “It’s ludicrous to a majority of the people in this city, including the descendants of the black people who donated to build the monument the way that it is.”
Gambill cited Georgia law 50-3-1, which specifically bans the removal of publicly-owned statues and monuments on public land. The monument was donated to the city by the Ladies Memorial Association of Augusta and rests on city-owned land.
According to Gambill, if the commission decides to remove the memorial, the group is prepared to sue the city.
After both sides were given a chance to speak, District 6 Commissioner Ben Hasan, chairman of the administrative services committee, made a motion to send the matter to the full commission for a vote.
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City Attorney Wayne Brown, who acts as parliamentarian, said the agenda item was just a presentation with no actionable request, so he wasn’t sure what motion he was referring to.
“A motion to begin to act on this,” Hasan said. “To make some decisions and basically answer the questions on if could we move them.”
District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom said he was uncomfortable voting to send the matter to the full commission until a legal opinion had been given and stated he feared such a vote of the full commission could be illegal.
MORE: Photojournalism: Augusta’s Monuments
“Are commissioners violating state law by approving the removing of monuments?” Frantom asked. “Are we as commissioners violating state law?”
District 3 Commissioner Catherine Smith-McKnight suggested that the matter should be put on a referendum to be decided by the voters and not by six votes on the commission.
In a 4-0 vote, the committee agreed to accept the task force’s recommendations as information.
Hasan said he will put the task force’s recommendations on the next full commission agenda as an action item that will allow the public time to weigh in on the matter.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com. Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com.
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