The Augusta Commission postponed voting Tuesday on whether to rename the Fifth Street Bridge the “Freedom Bridge” after a half-dozen opponents spoke of the need to preserve its designation as the Jefferson Davis Memorial Bridge.
The speakers offered various reasons for not removing brass plaques and marble signs honoring the president of the Confederacy, affixed since the bridge opened in 1932. Several made thinly-veiled threats of litigation under a Georgia law that bans altering memorials to Confederate soldiers.
Last week, four commissioners voted in favor of renaming the bridge, with Commissioner Ben Hasan specifying that means removing the markers. Freshly cleaned and shined during an $11 million city overhaul, the signs because more visible when the bridge reopened as Augusta’s latest tourist attraction, a pedestrian-only bridge. The full commission was set to vote on the matter Tuesday.
Theresa Pittman, an Augusta native and former president of the South Carolina Division of the Daughters of the Confederacy, said the bridge “could be a shining example for the education of people of the history of Augusta, good and bad.” She urged commissioners, the majority of whom are descended from African slaves, to pray about it.
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West Augusta resident Jim Davis, representing a unit of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said members met with city officials and contractors during the bridge construction project, a detail several commissioners said they did not know.
“We were continuously assured that the memorial and the plaques would remain,” Davis said. “I even sent Dr. (Hameed) Malik thanking him for remounting those plaques.” Malik directs the city’s Engineering and Environmental Services departments.
Davis said Georgia’s monuments are under attack by groups that include Black Lives Matter, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Atlanta Socialist Party and the NAACP.
Around the state, some local governments have removed Confederate-themed monuments and other relics, citing their misrepresentation of history or celebration of slavery. Several face ongoing litigation.
Only one member of the public spoke out in favor of renaming the bridge. former commissioner Moses Todd said as the grandson and great-grandson of slaves, he supports those who served on both sides during the Civil War, “because they did not have a choice in the matter,” but not the more recently-constructed monuments.
“I do believe monuments put up honoring the Civil War or its leaders is more about hate than heritage,” he said.
Todd added that anyone who has experienced “racial trauma” could experience post-traumatic stress disorder while visiting Augusta’s bridge.
J.J. Brittingham read another Sons of the Confederate Veterans’ member’s remarks about the history of slavery and the dismantling of monuments, such as the Taliban’s destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan. “Slavery was not invented by white people,” he said.
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The final speaker was lawyer Martin O’Toole, the director of litigation for the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
He informed commissioners they could be subject to costly financial damages, attorney fees and other charges if they proceed with removing the markers and break state law.
Commissioner Sean Frantom said he’d had only one constituent contact him about the bridge, which local tourism groups are marketing as the “Fifth Street Bridge.” Frantom asked for a legal opinion from General Counsel Wayne Brown.
Brown said his department needed two weeks to do further research but that O’Toole and some others lack standing to sue the local government, based on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Georgia. He also said the threatened fines and fees may be unconstitutional.
Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams said he was ready to vote Tuesday. His ancestors, some of whom were slaves, “cry out to me,” saying “do what needs to be done,” he said. He added that Freedom Bridge had greater tourism appeal than the Confederate designation.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theaugustapress.com
