Protests continue in Weatherford over Confederate statue; counter-protesters push back
A demonstration in Weatherford included several tense moments between protesters and counter-protesters, but ended without the violent clashes that marred a similar Parker County protest in July.
At Saturday’s event, the Parker County Progressives and other protesters continued to demand the removal of a Confederate Statue on the Parker County courthouse lawn. Parker County commissioners voted to keep the statue last month in a reversal of Judge Pat Deen’s announcement that it would be removed.
Over the past few months, the debate over the statue has culminated in violence at times. On July 25, protesters, primarily from Weatherford and Fort Worth, began a peaceful protest to demand the removal of the statue. About 75 protesters clashed with hundreds of people waiting at the courthouse to defend the monument. Two counter-protesters were arrested on July 25, and another was arrested on Aug. 4.
Tony Crawford, organizer with the Parker County Progressives, said he woke up with a knot in his stomach on Saturday morning about the protest, and was worried that someone would get hurt. He was especially anxious due to the fatal shooting of two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a protest.
Crawford said the police presence Saturday made him “absolutely feel secure” and he and the chief police were in constant communication.
Weatherford police and state troopers did their best to keep the approximately 100 protesters and 100 counter-protesters separate from one another. Police tape blocked off the center of the square in front of the Parker County courthouse. Only protesters were permitted in the parking lot in the square, while counter-protesters lined up on sidewalks and across the street. People on both sides carried guns.
Through the three-hour protest from noon to 3 p.m., the two sides, separated by yellow tape and, at times, law enforcement officers, talked, argued and sometimes yelled at one another. Some conversations were amiable. James Grey discussed the history of the monument and slavery in Parker County with several men holding Confederate flags. Other discussions turned aggressive. One man yelled at protesters that they were communists and racists. A protester yelled back that his life “didn’t matter.”
While there were risks with Saturday’s protest, Crawford said conversation of any kind is a step in the right direction.
“They wanna debate fact for fact, usually by the end of it it’s a screaming match,” he said. “It’s dialogue in some way or another.”
A debated history
Erected in 1929 by the Daughters of the Confederacy, the statue seems to hold different meanings for Weatherford residents. Some, like the Parker County Progressives, see it as a reminder that their own city fought for the right to own black people as slaves and view the statue’s erection as the glorification of those racist ideals.
Others view the monument as a way to honor men — and in some cases, ancestors — who lost their lives in the Civil War. For them, it’s a part of history that they do not want erased.
Carri Krieg-Nelson drove from Euless to counter-protest at the event. She said the statue should stay because it memorializes “soldiers who died in battle as they were fighting for this country.”
Krieg-Nelson said she wants to show support for law enforcement because “there’s not enough of them if they decide to take the statue down. We’re just here to be supportive of our fellow Americans.”
“I want peace for both sides,” she said. She added she hoped she could talk to “one or two people and them hear me, or I hear them.”
Crawford said the group has no intention of removing the statue forcibly. He said many in the community agree that a compromise could be reached if the statue was moved to another location instead of on the courthouse lawn.
Esther Simmons, 69, has lived in Weatherford nearly her entire life. On Saturday, she sat in the shade in the parking lot with a Bible in her lap. She held it up and said, “This is my weapon.” She agreed with Crawford that the statue did not have to be destroyed, but it should be moved.
“It stands for racism, it stands for oppression,” she said.
For Gerald Martin, the marble man in Weatherford stands for his ancestors who fought in the Civil War.
“And I don’t care if you think they fought for a bad cause, a wrong cause, an evil cause — that’s the cause they fought for and believed in and I honor their service by supporting the statue be retained,” Martin, who drove from his home in Dallas to attend the protest, said.
John Verdier, who lives in Weatherford, agreed with Martin that the statue should not be moved. He said the protesters have threatened him and called him a white supremacist and Neo-Nazi. In defense, he said that “Nazi equals white and normal.”
“It’s ridiculous. I’m not a white supremacist,” Verdier said. “I just want freedom to live on my own. I want to live in a neighborhood with people like me, I just want to be able to send my kids to school with other kids of European ancestry.
“We’ve tried this experiment and it’s obviously not working. I want to try an experiment where they go separate,” he said. “I’m not saying I want to get rid of anybody, I’m just saying I want to do what I want to do.”
Barbara Benson has lived in Weatherford for 20 years. She said while racism is not new in Weatherford, she feels that people are becoming more bold about it.
“These people are not new racists, they just didn’t show it,” Benson said. “They feel safe now to be able to show it.”
A professor at Austin Community College, Bryan Register, gave a brief history lesson on the Confederacy and racial injustice in America at Saturday’s protest. The protesters also knelt and raised their fists in the air while they played the national anthem and held a moment of silence.
Crawford said they will continue to demand the statue’s removal.
“We’ll be here until we see a 100-year-old dirt spot,” Crawford said.
This story was originally published August 30, 2020 at 5:54 PM.
