Leaders of Georgia’s Sons of Confederate Veterans division are urging Gov. Nathan Deal to bring the Tom Watson statue back to the Capitol after 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 will remain in the park area across the street, saving the state 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 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 yet determined when the statue will be removed, but they said earlier this month it would be in mid-November.
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