Politics & Government
Tarrant County commissioners vote to remove Confederate monument from courthouse yard
Tarrant County commissioners voted Tuesday to remove a monument dedicated to Confederate war soldiers and their descendants from the yard in front of the county courthouse.
Commissioner Roy Brooks made a motion to remove the monument; residents spoke on both sides, to remove it and to keep it.
“I would argue that it’s not a memorial at all, rather that it was erected in 1953 as a reminder to the black citizens of this county and of this state that the rules of Jim Crow were still in effect,” Brooks said. “It was a reminder of who held the power and who did not.
“I would argue that it has a chilling effect on justice.”
After about two hours of often emotional discussion, Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley and commissioners Brooks, Devan Allen and Gary Fickes voted to remove the monument. Commissioner J.D. Johnson abstained from the vote.
Whitley said he researched when the monument was dedicated in Tarrant County.
“This monument was erected not just after the Civil War, but 88 years later during the civil rights movement,” he said. “Some thought it was to honor those who fought.
“Some thought … it was to make clear that while (African Americans) were free, whites were still in control. We should not have any monument on Tarrant County public property that is believed by many to be a symbol of racism,” Whitley said. “Monuments should be about honoring and lifting people up, not putting people down.”
The marker was erected in 1953 and paid for by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Brooks asked that it be stored in a temporary location until a permanent home could be found for it.
Whitley said the monument will be removed “as soon as possible.” He said he doesn’t know where the monument ultimately will be displayed, but believes it should not be on county property.
Discussion of the issue was added to Tuesday’s meeting agenda after the Star-Telegram published a story last week about an effort to remove the monument as protests continued against racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Floyd died in the custody of Minneapolis police after an officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.
Johnson, Fickes and Allen said they’ve had a number of calls about the Confederate marker.
And Allen said she had mixed feelings about the vote.
But while she wants to be sensitive to history, “I have to be much more concerned about our future.”
Tarrant County Courthouse
Sheila Randolph, a Fort Worth attorney and a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was among those who said the monument should stay where it is.
“This had nothing to do with Jim Crow. It had nothing to do with white supremacy,” Randolph said. “They wanted a memorial” for Confederate soldiers.
The Rev. Ryon L. Price of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth it’s time for the monument to come down so that healing can begin.
“It is time we let the spirit of the Confederacy die in peace,” he said. “It’s deeply symbolic.
“It will have meaning to many. It will matter to many. It is time.”
Protest site
The courthouse has been the site of many protests.
Over the weekend, pictures on social media showed that the monument was covered. A message written on cloth tied around the building read: “Moments made during Jim Crow serve to keep racism alive.” When the cloth was removed, “BLM” had been written on the monument but was later cleaned off.
Brooks said it was appropriate that the vote came Tuesday, on the day of Floyd’s funeral in Houston.
Brooks said he graduated from a segregated high school in Fort Worth where he was taught that “regardless of what other people thought of me, that there was nothing inferior about me.
“That monument seeks to put a lie to that training that I received as a child.”
More than year-long effort
Fort Worth attorney Jason Smith last week renewed his more than year-long call for county leaders to remove the monument at the Tarrant County Courthouse. He was joined by Crowley school trustee Nedra Robinson.
Smith was among the more than dozen people who wrote the court, or spoke to them on the phone or in person Tuesday about the monument.
He has said racism is still alive in Tarrant County and the Confederate monument should no longer be in the yard of the Tarrant County Courthouse.
“I ask you to turn the page on Tarrant County’s racist past and take a step toward equality,” he said.
As for the future, Brooks said Tuesday’s vote sets the tone as commissioners move forward to address inequalities in sectors ranging from criminal justice to health care to education.
When he made his motion, Brooks said he didn’t know whether the court would support his proposal to remove the marker.
“But I knew this was a fight worth fighting,” he said. “And I appreciate my colleagues for hearing the pain of the people and being committed to do the right thing.”
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