Remove Confederate statue at U of L (KY)

Ricky L. Jones
7:28 p.m. EDT April 20, 2016

... 1895 was a pivotal year for America. Frederick Douglass .. died in February ... W.E.B. DuBois .. became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard.

On September .. Charles Hamilton Houston was born. Houston .. was the driving force behind .. cases that led to the historic Brown v. Board decision ... Fifteen days after Houston’s birth .. Booker T. Washington delivered his .. “Atlanta Exposition Address” ... In the middle of Douglass’ death and Houston’s birth, a 70-foot Confederate statue was given to the city of Louisville even though Kentucky was never part of the Confederacy ... The monument was erected adjacent to the University of Louisville’s campus. There it stands to this day ...

... the battle flag, statues and other symbols of the Confederacy ... are representations of hate, .. of racial superiority, inhumanity and devilishness. The Civil War ... was a war about slavery – plain and simple ... a conflict the South started to maintain its right to continue playing pharaoh ...

Louisville’s statue ... is a celebration of backwardness. When it was given to the city in 1895, U of L was smaller. It grew over the decades and engulfed the statue. It now sits at the heart of the school ... There has been perpetual confusion .. about the monument. No one has been completely clear as to who owns it or the land on which it sits. The school has said the city owns the land. The city says the state does. Both .. school and city are loathe to claim ownership of the statue itself ...

It has no place on the campus of a modern university. If 21st century Confederates want it, sell it to them and put it on one of their lawns ... Frankly, there would probably be very little protest if you .. blew the damn thing up in the middle of the night ...

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/columnists/2016/04/20/ricky-jones-remove-confederate-statue-u-l/83283382/