‘We stand here as free people’: Monument unveiling honors the enslaved in county’s past – By Scott Broden (Murfreesboro Daily News Journal) / Jan 13, 2024
Monument unveiling ceremony falls on weekend of MLK birthday celebration
- President of African American Heritage Society of Rutherford County says her enslaved grandparents ‘were brought here’
Speaker Angela Bingham tells audience ‘we can have equality for all people’ - Bingham also sings ‘Amazing Grace,’ a song written by an abolitionist who previously had been a captain of a slave ship
- County Mayor Joe Carr provides statement about monument: ‘The monument provides balance to our history with the rest of the markers that are there.’
Rutherford County honored the enslaved Saturday by unveiling a monument on the Civil-War era County Courthouse grounds in downtown Murfreesboro.
The new 3-feet tall monument proposed by the African American Heritage Society of Rutherford County sits on the northeast side of the Courthouse grounds near a statue of a Confederate soldier that stands high above the city’s Public Square.
A racially diverse group of about 150 people attended the ceremony, including Henry Knox of Murfreesboro. He appreciated that a previously absent African American history was now being told on the grounds near the County Courthouse steps where auctions of the enslaved had previously been held.
