Confederate Monument Removed From Outside Mississippi Courthouse

A Confederate monument in Grenada, Mississippi, has been taken down after standing for more than a century on the courthouse square.

The statue, which had been covered in tarps for the past four years, was removed as part of a relocation plan that has stirred new controversy in the community.

Grenada’s first Black mayor in two decades, Charles Latham, is pushing forward with the city’s decision to move the monument. {snip}

However, the relocation has met resistance. State Rep. Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes, a Republican from another part of Mississippi, claims the city may be violating state law. The law restricts the relocation of war memorials, and Hobgood-Wilkes believes the fire station site is inappropriate.

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The Grenada City Council voted to move the monument in 2020, shortly after George Floyd‘s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis. {snip} The move, however, was delayed for years due to budget constraints, bureaucracy, and political hesitation.

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The monument has been a point of contention in Grenada, a town of 12,300 people, where about 57% of the population is Black and 40% is white. Mayor Latham acknowledged the complexity of the situation. “I understand people had family and stuff to fight and die in that war, and they should be proud of their family,” Latham said. “But you’ve got to understand that there were those who were oppressed by this, by the Confederate flag on there.”

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