Confederate monuments across the country are being removed in the wake of a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., but a statue of Confederate Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart remains on the Hamilton County Courthouse lawn.
Leaders of the Chattanooga chapter of the NAACP said in July they would be imploring the Hamilton County Commission to remove the statue, arguing it is a painful monument that has no business being next to the courthouse.
“If you want to have good race relations in the community, you need to remove those barriers, and they are barriers,” said Elenora Woods, president of the Chattanooga NAACP.
The issue of Confederate memorials in public places was thrust back into a national spotlight Saturday after a fatal demonstration in Charlottesville over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
A female counterprotester was killed when a car rammed into a crowd of pedestrians and two state police officers died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the protest by white nationalists.