Athens Confederate Monument | |
---|---|
Year | 1872 |
Medium |
|
Location | Athens, Georgia, U.S. |
33°54′58″N83°23′53″W / 33.916°N 83.398°W |
The Athens Confederate Monument is a Confederate memorial near Barber Creek in Athens, Georgia, United States. It is a Carrara marble obelisk mounted on a granite foundation engraved with names of the city's soldiers who were killed during the American Civil War. It was formerly located in the median strip of Broad Street in the Downtown Local Historic District of Athens [1] until being removed in 2020 and being placed at its current site in 2021.
The monument is made up of two different sections, an obelisk made of Carrara marble that has six shafts, and a granite base. Only the marble obelisk is engraved. The names of white Confederate soldiers from Athens who were killed during the Civil War are inscribed on the marble. A veteran of the war called for the names to be arranged in alphabetical order rather than by rank so none of their deaths would be perceived as greater than the others, but his request was left unfulfilled. [2] The master of a local Masonic Lodge, William King, included a time capsule in the monument's cornerstone. The time capsule, which according to an interview with William King contains Confederate memorabilia and a list of Athens Freemasons, was removed after the monument's most recent relocation. [3]
The monument was one of the first monuments to the casualties of the American Civil War to be raised in the South after the war's conclusion. [4] Construction of the monument began on May 5, 1871, and was completed on June 3, 1872, at the cost of $4,444.44 (about $933,000 in 2020) raised by the Ladies' Memorial Association from the residents of the city, though another professor at the university, Akela Reason, proposed that it was actually funded by the city's wealthy men because "it would have been easier for women to build a memorial mourning the dead than for men to build one in defiance." [5] It has been moved three times since it was first erected at the intersection of College Avenue and Washington Street. It was first moved north one block to the center of College Avenue, but was relocated again in 1912 when it caused congestion there. It then stood in the median of Broad Street until August 10, 2020. [2] [6]
Discussions by the city and local activists to remove the monument began after the Charleston church shooting in 2015. [5] After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police the area around the monument became the rally point for the city's protest. Protesters called for the monument to be removed. [7]
In response to the local outcry it was planned for the monument to be moved again from the intersection of Broad Street and College Avenue in downtown Athens in 2020 by Athens mayor, Kelly Girtz. The mayor's desire to move the monument was challenged by Senate Bill 77, which prevents the city from moving Confederate monuments from prominent locations to another of lower prominence, but a loophole in the bill allowed the monument to be removed. [8] [9] [10] On June 16, 2020, the mayor proposed a $450,000 plan to move the monument from Broad Street to Timothy Place. [11] The mayor's plan was approved by the city commissioners on June 25 as part of a project to make the surrounding area more pedestrian-friendly. [12]
Work began on August 10 to remove the monument from the intersection at Broad Street. It was being moved according to the plan approved by the city's commissioners on June 25, but was temporarily stored in a field due to size restrictions until it could be installed on a new foundation. [6] [13] By June 2021, the memorial was partially reassembled, with the base of the structure already in place, at its current location at the end of Timothy Place visible from the Athens Perimeter. Its current placement is near the site of the Battle of Barber Creek, a skirmish that occurred on August 2, 1864, between a detachment of General George Stoneman's cavalry forces and the Athens Home Guard during the Atlanta campaign. [14] [15]
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about 70 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an R1 research institution, is in Athens and contributed to its initial growth. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original City of Athens abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens–Clarke County where it is the county seat.
The Confederate War Memorial was a 65 foot (20 m)-high monument that pays tribute to soldiers and sailors from Texas who served with the Confederate States of America (CSA) during the American Civil War. The monument was dedicated in 1897, following the laying of its cornerstone the previous year. Originally located in Sullivan Park near downtown Dallas, Texas, United States, the monument was relocated in 1961 to the nearby Pioneer Park Cemetery in the Convention Center District, next to the Dallas Convention Center and Pioneer Plaza.
Jackson Street Cemetery, also known as Old Athens Cemetery, was the original cemetery for Athens, Georgia and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was in official use as the town cemetery from about 1810 to 1856, until Oconee Hill Cemetery opened. The last known burial was in 1898.
The Confederate Monument in Portsmouth, Virginia, was built between 1876 and 1881. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1997.
The Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia, was the first installation on Monument Avenue in 1890, and would ultimately be the last monument removed from the site. Before its removal on September 8, 2021, the monument honored Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee, depicted on a horse atop a large marble base that stood over 60 feet (18 m) tall. Constructed in France and shipped to Virginia, it remained the largest installation on Monument Avenue for over a century; it was first listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 and the Virginia Landmarks Register in 2006.
More than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.
The Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument was a commemorative obelisk that was erected in Linn Park, Birmingham, Alabama in 1905. The monument was dismantled and removed in 2020.
Kelly Darryl Girtz is an American educator and politician currently serving as mayor of the unified government of Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, having succeeded Nancy Denson in January 2019. Before he was sworn in as mayor, Girtz maintained a long career as a teacher and school administrator in Northeast Georgia.
The Norfolk Confederate Monument was a Confederate memorial in front of the Norfolk Southern Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. The monument was removed in June 2020.
The Civil War Memorial in Savannah, Georgia, is a monument honoring soldiers who died during the American Civil War. Located in Forsyth Park, it consists of a 48 foot (15 m) tall shaft topped with a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier. Two bronze busts commemorating notable Confederate army officers flank the monument, which is protected by a railing, one of the only two that still stand around a monument, the other being the Casimir Pulaski Monument in Monterey Square. Originally known as the Confederate Monument, it was dedicated in 1875 to honor Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War. Following the Unite the Right rally, the city of Savannah renamed and rededicated the structure in 2018. The monument is one of the oldest and largest Confederate monuments in Georgia.
The DeKalb County Confederate Monument is a Confederate memorial that formerly stood in Decatur, Georgia, United States. The 30-foot stone obelisk was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy near the old county courthouse in 1908.
The Peace Monument is a public monument in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Designed by Allen George Newman, the monument is located in Piedmont Park and was erected in 1911 by members of the Old Guard of the Gate City Guard, a Confederate-era militia, as a show of national unity in the years following the American Civil War. The monument has been the subject of controversy recently, with some calling for its removal as a symbol of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy Monument is a Confederate monument in Cleveland, Tennessee owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was sculpted in 1910 and installed in 1911.
The Confederate Obelisk is a large Confederate monument located in the Oakland Cemetery of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The structure, a tall obelisk located in the cemetery's Confederate section, was dedicated in 1874. Due to its connection to the Confederate States of America, the monument has been vandalized repeatedly.
The Soldiers' Monument is a controversial memorial monument at the center of the Santa Fe Plaza. It was erected as a 33 feet (10 m) stone cenotaph, consisting of an obelisk and a plinth during 1867–1868. During the late nineteenth century, the monument was used for annual Memorial Day events, a place for Union veterans to gather, decorate the cenotaph, and hear brief presentations.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)