The Augusta Commission voted to remove the name of Jefferson Davis from a downtown walking bridge and remove the six markers identifying the bridge in a 7-2 vote Tuesday. Immediately after the vote, a group of residents huddled to plan a lawsuit.
The city joins others around the country in the movement to remove Confederate names and markers from public places, an effort reignited by the 2020 death of George Floyd in police custody. The city recently gave the Savannah River bridge an $11 million makeover and made it pedestrian-only.
Commissioner Ben Hasan’s motion was to rename the bridge the “Freedom Bridge” and donate the marble signs and brass plaques memorializing Davis to a museum.
A group that has followed Augusta’s efforts, with Save the Monuments in Augusta, spoke of who would serve as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Charles Sheppard, J.J. Brittingham and Paul Stampley, all Augusta residents, volunteered themselves after the meeting. Russell Gambill, head of the monument group, said he will wait until the commission targets the 76-foot Confederate monument in the Broad Street median downtown.
“That’s the next thing they’re going to do,” Gambill said.
The Supreme Court of Georgia recently found that actual residents of a jurisdiction have standing to sue local governments over the removal of monuments, although the cases have not been litigated. State law bans the removal of Civil War memorials.
Former commissioner Bill Fennoy, who pushed during his last term to rename the John C. Calhoun Expressway, named for the great advocate of slavery, for someone else, told commissioners Tuesday the city shouldn’t honor Confederate leaders.
MORE: Commission postpones vote on ‘Freedom Bridge’
“To me it’s an insult to live in a city with a majority African-American community where we are honoring people that were part of the Confederacy,” he said.
Fennoy said the more than 2,000 memorials to Confederate in the United States were “erected as part of an organized propaganda campaign to terrorize African-American communities.”
The National Defense Authorization Act mandates the removal of Confederate names from American military bases, and Fort Gordon is soon to be renamed Fort Eisenhower, he noted. The Augusta base is named for Confederate general John Brown Gordon but is being renamed for the former president and World War II general.
Commissioner Catherine Smith McKnight, who opposed the bridge vote, said she was certain litigation would follow. The commission had a closed-door session during the meeting at which city lawyers presented their assessment.
“I just feel like it should be left in the state’s hands and not local government,” McKnight said. “Once you start doing one, you’re opening up a big can of worms and wanting to change (others.)”
McKnight said she wanted to see the plaques on the South Carolina side of the bridge given to an entity in that state.
Commissioner John Clarke, the other “no” vote, said he “(did) not care about the name of that bridge,” but didn’t want to break state law.
“I took an oath to obey the laws of the state and the city,” Clarke said.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theaugustapress.com
