Leaders of Georgia’s Sons of Confederate Veterans are urging Gov. Nathan Deal to bring the Tom Watson statue back to the Capitol once a statehouse renovation project is completed.
State officials are moving the Watson statue across the street as part of an extensive renovation of the west steps and entrance to the Capitol. Once the renovations are done, the statue is to remain in the park area across the street, saving the $50,000 to $60,000 it would cost to move it back.
Civil rights leaders and some lawmakers cheered Deal’s decision to move the statue of Watson, a once populist politician and publisher who later vilified blacks, Catholics and Jews.
“It is a dangerous thing anytime there is an attempt to rewrite or cover up any people’s history,” Jack Bridwell, Georgia’s SCV division commander, said in a press release. “The current decision to begin removing statues of Georgia’s elected statesmen from the Capitol grounds just because some vocal individuals today may not understand or agree with all of their political decisions a hundred years ago is historical revisionism at its best and an outright attempt to steal our heritage and history as Georgians at its worst.”
Georgia Building Authority officials say they haven’t determined when the statue will be removed, but they said a few weeks ago it would be in mid-November.
Deal, who approved the move, said, “The real reasons (for the move) were safety for people coming and going from the Capitol, and the steps needed to be repaired. And the statue was in the way.”
The Anti-Defamation League is among the groups applauding the move.
“We are grateful to Governor Deal for acting to remove the statue,” said Shelley Rose, associate director of the ADL Southeast Region. “In doing so, he sends a clear message that he will not tolerate the hatred and bigotry that defined so much of Watson’s career.”
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