The Sons of Confederate Veterans along with a local camp and members has filed a lawsuit to block the removal of all Confederate names and artifacts from public spaces in Augusta.
Several local members of the organization threatened litigation after the Augusta Commission voted last month to remove six signs from a bridge honoring Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederacy, and rename the bridge the “Freedom Bridge.”
But the litigation filed Friday in Richmond County Superior Court goes beyond the bridge and asks the court to stop the implementation of any recommendations made by Mayor Hardie Davis’ 2020 task force on monuments, landmarks and name, including removing the large Confederate monument in the Broad Street median downtown.
It’s the first lawsuit filed since the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled residents of Newton and Henry counties had standing, while nonresidents did not, to sue the county commissions there for removing Confederate monuments.
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“This is the first suit filed since the Supreme Court decision and should set the course for all future litigation against other government agencies who think they can flout the law in pandering to the woke mobs demanding censorship and purges,” Martin O’Toole, spokesman for the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said in a statement.
The lawsuit, filed by Evans attorney Charles Sheppard, names each of the 10 commissioners individually, including the two, Catherine Smith McKnight and John Clarke, who did not vote to rename the bridge or remove the signs.
It says the commissioners violated Georgia’s ban on altering Confederate monuments and names by approving the removal of signs and name change.
They also may have violated a section of the South Carolina Code that bans altering any street name, bridge or structure named for or honoring any historical figure or event. Two of the Davis signs are on the South Carolina side of the bridge, and a North Augusta museum recently expressed interest in obtaining them if they are removed.
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The suit seeks a temporary injunction against altering the bridge during the litigation and permanent injunctions against fulfilling any of the task force recommendations, as well as the award of attorney’s fees.
Davis formed the task force in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. The commission postponed acting on the recommendations, even as the city completed a $11 million renovation of the bridge into a pedestrian-only attraction. It voted to postpone any action on the Broad Street monument until a streetscape project begins.
The other recommendations include renaming the John C. Calhoun Expressway, named for the former U.S. vice president and secretary of war, relocating a smaller Confederate monument on Greene Street and renaming Fort Gordon and Gordon Highway, named for Confederate general John Brown Gordon. While the city government has no jurisdiction over the military base, the Department of Defense is in the process of changing the names of all military bases named for Confederate leaders.
