Stop this silly debate. It’s past time to move Jefferson Davis statue from Capitol Rotunda.
On Thursday night, Lexington police officers took off their riot gear during the seventh night of peaceful protests against police brutality and the recent killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
It was a small but important symbolic move: Police don’t have to look like jack-booted storm troopers to guard headquarters against people trying to tell them some important truths. That militaristic stance is a big part of the problem.
Here’s another small but important symbolic move that needs to be made amid this time of racial strife: Move the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis statue out of Kentucky’s Capitol Rotunda and into the Kentucky History Center. It’s such a no-brainer that even political foes like Gov. Andy Beshear and Attorney General Daniel Cameron agree on it.
Yes, Davis was born and educated in Kentucky. But he stood for ideals that we now consider abhorrent and he should not be celebrated in our state’s most important government building. Herald-Leader columnist Tom Eblen made this call in 2015 in the wake of the murder of nine black churchgoers by a white supremacist at a Charleston, S.C. church:
“The central issue of Southern secession was the preservation of slavery and the economic system that depended on it,” Eblen wrote. “It was about denying black people basic human rights because of a belief they were inferior. Davis was the man in charge of that effort, and he doesn’t deserve our honor today.”
Five years ago, the Historic Properties Advisory Commission members were completely tone deaf when they voted to leave the statue. Furthermore, they have never done what they promised, to provide contextual material on all the Rotunda’s statues.
Kentucky was a border state that went back and forth in its loyalties during the war. If Virginia can move a six-story statute of Robert E. Lee from Richmond, the capitol of the Confederacy, then surely we can do this one small thing to show better faith with our fellow citizens who see these statues of one more reminder of pain and fear.
Davis’ complicated life can be better explained in the history center than in the celebratory circle of the Rotunda. It’s possible that Beshear could remove the statute by executive order, but this would surely lead to a lawsuit and complaints about overreach. Instead the commission should meet immediately, vote to remove the statue and get this small but important symbol in the place it needs to be.
We are now realizing the price of ignoring our history in our wounded protesters and battered cities. We can do better and should do so immediately.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 12:07 PM.
