Statue of noted anti-Semite and white-supremacist to be removed from Georgia state capitol entrance

The statue of Tom Watson that graces the entrance to the Georgia state capitol will soon be removed from the grounds.

Watson was a newspaper magnate in the late 19th and early 20th century, and began his political career as a populist. In 1894, two years before he would be considered a serious candidate to accompany William Jennings Bryan on the Democratic presidential ticket, the masthead of his paper said that it “will oppose to the bitter end … Moneyed Aristocracy, National Banks, High Tariffs, Standing Armies and formidable Navies — all of which go together as a system of oppressing the people.”

He would later complain that Bryan was threatening to “turn the Democratic Party into the N****r Party.”

In the wake of his failed vice-presidential bid, and as his wealth increased, he began to speak out against populism, especially in its more socialist incarnations. He became well-known for his anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic diatribes — which he published in his papers — and openly supported the reconstitution of the Ku Klux Klan.

“Wherever the white man puts his foot, he rules,” Watson wrote at the time. “Don’t give the educated Negro the chance to register, and establish Negro Domination. MAINTAIN WHITE SUPREMACY!”

More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/21/statue-of-noted-anti-semite-and-white-supremacist-to-be-removed-from-georgia-state-capitol-entrance/