Commissioners Vote To Remove Confederate Monument Outside Tarrant County Courthouse
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Tarrant Co. commissioners voted 4-0 to remove a highly scrutinized monument honoring Confederate war soldiers currently in front of the historic county courthouse.
Commissioner J.D. Johnson abstained.
"To many people in this county, that represented racism. And because of that, we needed to be a little bit more sympathetic," said
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley.
Their decision comes after activists decrying the death of George Floyd held protests and covered up the monument over the weekend. Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in the custody of Minneapolis police after an officer pressed his knee into his neck for almost nine minutes.
"It only honors those veterans who took up arms against Americans and their descendants," said Commissioner Roy Brooks, who led the vote to remove the marker.
Previously resistant to demands for the removal of monuments, commissioners will now decide where to relocate it.
One citizen named Phil offered an idea, "If you're looking for a place to put the Confederate monument... there's a lot of room at the bottom of Lake Lewisville."
The marker was erected in 1953 and was paid for by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
A member of the chapter of the group, Sheila Randolph was also at the meeting.
"Our country was in the middle of a war. This had nothing to do with Jim Crow. This had nothing to do with white supremacy."
County staff is in charge of removing the monument that has stood for nearly 70 years.