Liberty City Council suspends public comments about Confederate statue amid lawsuit
Public comments related to a longstanding debate in Liberty about the removal of a Confederate statue from the municipally-run Fairview Cemetery will no longer be heard in city meetings under a new policy.
During a Zoom conference Monday night, Liberty Mayor Lyndell Brenton read a statement outlining the updated rules. Over the past two years “there has been substantial time and ample opportunity provided” for those on both sides of the issue to speak their minds, Brenton said. But the matter is wrapped up in a civil court case and the city does not wish to discuss it further until that is resolved, he added.
Instead of hearing residents speak publicly, the city will continue to accept written opinions sent to the deputy city clerk. Any comments on the topic will no longer be read aloud during city meetings, but they will be entered into the public record and shared with elected officials.
At issue is a 20-foot-tall granite likeness of a Confederate soldier that has stood in the Fairview Cemetery since 1904. Etched into the base of the statue is a Confederate flag. It was erected by the United Confederate Veterans, now the Sons of Confederate Veterans, on a plot purchased with money from donations.
Nearly two years ago, amid a national movement to strip Confederate monuments from public spaces, a group of area residents began pressuring city leaders to seek the statue’s removal. The statue is a racist symbol that was put up decades after the end of the Civil War, proponents argue, and stands as a reminder of Jim Crow policies that enabled segregation and discrimination based on race.
Options floated by the group have included moving the statue to a less-visible place, and roughly $10,000 was raised privately to have it brought down last year.
Defenders of the statue claim removing it is akin to erasing history. They also argue the graves of several Confederate soldiers buried in the plot will be desecrated if large-scale construction work happens there.
Since last year the city has been involved in a lawsuit with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the deed-holder to the plot where the statue is. The case is still pending in Clay County Circuit Court.
The Star’s Eric Adler contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 10:00 PM.
