It is the first Confederate monument to come down in Georgia, according to Atlanta Civil Rights and defense attorney Mawuli Davis.
A crowd started gathering before 11 o’clock Thursday night to witness the use of cranes to start the removal of the so-called “Lost Cause” monument in Decatur Square. It’s in downtown Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta.
Davis says it took all of the organizations and “the people who have marched and protested” to make it happen. He calls it “a people’s victory.”
The top of the obelisk, Davis adds, “was rolling out just as Juneteenth was coming in.” Juneteenth, June 19, is the commemoration of the ending of slavery in the U.S.
Those gathered in Decatur Square celebrated the moment with a champagne toast.
The bottom of the monument was expected be removed through the night and to be totally gone by Friday morning. It stood for 112 years after being hoisted in 1908.
On July 12, DeKalb County Judge Clarence Seeliger ordered that the monument be removed and placed in storage by June 26.
The order was in response to a complaint by the City of Decatur that the 30-foot four-sided pointed pillar was a threat to the safety of the public during protests about police violence and racism toward African Americans. It was called a ‘public nuisance’.
It’s part of the nationwide movement to remove Confederate symbols and monuments. In Georgia, supporters of the statue and monument removals say the relics honor the state’s racist past.
Davis says “it’s the blood that has been shed by so many that has led to this.”