Politics

Congress To Examine State Statues Associated With Confederacy

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Kerry Picket Political Reporter
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WASHINGTON — Congress may nudge several states for at least ten of their statues that are associated with the Confederacy.

As a result of the fallout from the horrific massacre at a black church in Charleston, S.C. last week, the alleged gunman’s love for the Confederate flag triggered a call for the state to remove the flag from above the capitol dome. At the behest of South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley and legislators on both sides of the aisle, the future of the flag is scheduled for a vote in the state legislature next month.

Now officials are being asked about statues in state capitols and the U.S. capitol that honor confederate war officers. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia all have statues in the capitol of men who fought in Civil War for the Confederacy. These individuals include: Joseph Wheeler, Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston, Wade Hampton, Jefferson Davis, and John Kenna.

“The problem we have with most of the statues in the capitol complex is that there’s a law that says as I understand it — it says each state is entitled to two statues and two statues only and so that’s really up to the states. Now I think it would be really important to look at some of the statues that are here not as a result of what the states have done, but what others do and we’re going to take a look at that,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday.

“I think we need to make sure the states understand what they have. For example, I have said publicly in Nevada on more than one occasion—one of our statues is Pat McCarron. I think he should be put out to pasture some place—the statue. I think he doesn’t represent the things our country stands for and certainly not what Nevada stands for. The statues are really important. They send a message.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters about a Jefferson Davis statue in the state capitol of his home state of Kentucky that he believes should be moved.

“Davis’s sole connection to Kentucky is that he was born there. He subsequently moved to Mississippi and Kentucky, of course, did not secede from the union, so I think it’s appropriate, certainly in Kentucky, to be talking about the appropriateness of continuing to have Jefferson Davis statue in a very prominent place in our state capitol,” he said. “Maybe a better place for that would be the Kentucky history museum, which is also in the state capitol.”

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Kerry Picket