Denton, Tarrant counties vote to remove Confederate monuments – By Catherine Marfin (Dallas Morning News) / June 9 2020
Decisions in both counties came after more than 10 days of protests in North Texas against police brutality and systemic racism.
Confederate monuments will be removed from courthouses in Denton and Tarrant counties after commissioners in both places voted Tuesday to take them down.
In Tarrant County, the vote came after a two-hour discussion where people spoke both in favor of keeping and removing the marker, which has been in front of the county courthouse since 1953, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. It passed 4-0 with one abstention.
“I would argue that it’s not a memorial at all, rather that it was erected in 1953 as a reminder to the black citizens of this county and of this state that the rules of Jim Crow were still in effect,” County Commissioner Roy Brooks said, according to the Star-Telegram. “It was a reminder of who held the power and who did not. … I would argue that it has a chilling effect on justice.”
A member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which paid for the 67-year-old statue, was in favor of keeping the statue in its place.
“This had nothing to do with Jim Crow. It had nothing to do with white supremacy,” said Sheila Randolph, a Fort Worth attorney. “They wanted a memorial” for Confederate soldiers, she said.
Continue to article: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/06/09/denton-tarrant-counties-vote-to-removed-confederate-monuments-from-cities/
