Relocate stagnant totems

The Urban County Council made the courageous decision to relocate Confederate statues. And it is important that the Lexington Cemetery, as a standard-bearer of our community history, has agreed to accept them. When the statue of Gen. John Hunt Morgan was placed on the courthouse lawn, black Americans would not have been allowed to eat at the restaurant across the street. The general would have approved of that, as did the white society of 1911 that put him there.

We have evolved toward a less racist good. But the general remains in superior pose, still endorsing the slave auctions that occurred mere feet behind him. Today’s black children are confronted with the imperial visage that looks down on them from a culture that would prefer they stand ready to empty his chamber pot.

Our beautiful old courthouse is coming into its new day. But before we order African coffee at tables on stones where human flesh was once peddled, let’s acknowledge the social pain, and relocate these stagnant totems. The celebration of our renewed history should then have a more nourishing spirit.

This story was originally published September 17, 2017 at 7:03 AM with the headline "Relocate stagnant totems."