A Confederate monument in Grenada, Mississippi, has been taken down after standing for more than a century on the courthouse square.
The statue, which had been covered in tarps for the past four years, was removed as part of a relocation plan that has stirred new controversy in the community.
Pieces of a Confederate monument are secured onto a flatbed truck Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, after a crew removed them from the spot where the monument had stood since 1910, in downtown Grenada, Miss.
Emily Wagster Pettus/AP Photo
Grenada’s first Black mayor in two decades, Charles Latham, is pushing forward with the city’s decision to move the monument. A concrete slab has already been laid at a new site behind a fire station, about 3.5 miles from the square.
However, the relocation has met resistance. State Rep. Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes, a Republican from another part of Mississippi, claims the city may be violating state law. The law restricts the relocation of war memorials, and Hobgood-Wilkes believes the fire station site is inappropriate.
Charles Latham speaks near a century-old Confederate memorial statue in Grenada, Miss., April 12, 2023. On Wednesday, the monument, which had been covered for 4 years, was moved.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo
“We are prepared to pursue such avenues that may be necessary to ensure that the statue is relocated to a more suitable and appropriate location,” she said. Hobgood-Wilkes suggested moving the monument to a nearby Confederate cemetery.
The Grenada City Council voted to move the monument in 2020, shortly after George Floyd‘s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis. The vote coincided with Mississippi’s decision to retire its state flag, which prominently featured the Confederate battle emblem. Shortly after the vote, the monument was wrapped in tarps. The move, however, was delayed for years due to budget constraints, bureaucracy, and political hesitation.
On Sept. 11, with little public notice, the monument was finally removed. Police blocked traffic as a crew dismantled the 20-foot stone statue.
Robin Whitfield, an artist with a studio near the square, watched as the crane lifted the monument onto a flatbed truck. “I’m glad to see it move to a different location,” she said. “This represents that something has changed.” However, Whitfield wished for more community dialogue. “No one ever talked about it, other than yelling on Facebook,” she added.
The monument has been a point of contention in Grenada, a town of 12,300 people, where about 57% of the population is Black and 40% is white. Mayor Latham acknowledged the complexity of the situation. “I understand people had family and stuff to fight and die in that war, and they should be proud of their family,” Latham said. “But you’ve got to understand that there were those who were oppressed by this, by the Confederate flag on there.”
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History granted the city permission to move the monument, but Hobgood-Wilkes and others are advocating for a different location, such as a Confederate cemetery near the courthouse.
Lori Chavis, a city council member in Grenada, Miss., speaks Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, about a plan to move a Confederate monument from a prominent spot in downtown to a secluded area behind a fire station. On Wednesday, the monument was finally moved to its new location.
Emily Wagster Pettus/AP Photo
Grenada City Council member Lori Chavis said the monument had only deepened the divide in the community. While she supports relocating it, she admitted many residents were surprised by the location behind the fire station. “It’s tucked back in the woods,” Chavis said. “And it’s not visible from even pulling behind the fire station.”
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press
