Georgia Replaces Confederate Monument With Bronze Statue Of Late Rep. John Lewis
DECATUR, Ga. — A large bronze statue of the late civil rights icon leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis was installed Friday (Aug 16) at the very spot where a contentious monument to the confederacy stood for more than 110 years in the town square before it was dismantled in 2020.
Internationally acclaimed sculptor Basil Watson, who designed the 12-foot-tall statue, watched as it was placed ahead of its official unveiling on Aug. 24.
“It’s exciting to see it going up and exciting for the city because of what he represents and what it’s replacing,” Watson said as he assisted with the installation process.
Lewis, who represented Georgia in Congress for over three decades, first rose to national prominence during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s when he urged others to get into “good trouble.” During the protests, he also led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was a confidante of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
The late congressman was beaten during a march in Selma, Ala., on the Edmund Pettus Bridge alongside many other civil rights leaders.
Lewis died in 2020 after succumbing to pancreatic cancer and was laid in state in the Capitol, an honor reserved for very few.
In DeKalb County, where the Confederate monument stood for more than a century, protesters have invoked “good trouble” in calling for the swift removal of the obelisk.
In 2020, the stone obelisk was lifted from its base with straps amid jeers and chants of “Just drop it!” from onlookers in Decatur, Georgia, who were kept at a safe distance by sheriff’s deputies. The obelisk was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908.
Groups like the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights and Hate Free Decatur had been pushing for the monument to be removed since the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The monument was among those around the country that became flashpoints for protests over police brutality and racial injustice following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. The city of Decatur then asked a Georgia judge to order the monument’s removal, which was often vandalized and marked by graffiti, saying it had become a threat to public safety.
Democrats have rallied around honoring Lewis’s legacy through statues and monuments and the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. This bill has been a top priority for Democrats since the 2020 election.
The bill would recodify parts of the original Voting Rights Act, passed in the wake of mass demonstrations led in part by Lewis during the Civil Rights Movement that the Supreme Court has abolished in the last decade.
The court weakened the nondiscrimination portion of the act, allowing the federal government to oversee state voting rules.
Just as long as they place that Confederate Hero somewhere else of prominence. I would suggest Stone Mountain Park near the Carving would be good and keep Stone Mountain as a tribute to the people who fought in the Civil War, there were a lot of Black Soldiers that fought in that war as well. The Civil war was not about slavery it was found over States Rights.
We Georgians had a lot of ancestors that fought in the Civil Wars both Black and White so while they removed that Hero of the Civil War from Decatur he needs to be placed in a prominent location elsewhere, I suggest Stone Mountain Park located somewhere around the carving. The Carving is such a beautiful piece of History so that would be perfect.