FRANKFORT, Ky. — About 100 people, most of them African American, filled Kentucky’s Capitol Rotunda Wednesday as black leaders and lawmakers called on Gov. Matt Bevin to remove the statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the rotunda.

It’s not the first attempt for some of them: Raoul Cunningham, President of the Louisville NAACP, recalled joining former state Sen. Georgia Davis Powers in 2003 asking for the removal of the statue. He headed another effort in 2015 to have it removed, but the Historic Properties Advisory Commission voted to retain it.

At the time, then candidate Bevin also called for removal of Davis from the rotunda. But two weeks ago, when in the wake of the racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Bevin was asked his current position, the governor demurred, saying it would be unwise to revise or sanitize history.

That doesn’t sit well with the black leaders. They sent Bevin a letter last week asking him again to remove the statue of the native-born Kentuckian who led the South in the Civil War.

Wednesday, Cunningham recalled progress on civil rights in Kentucky, specifically noting the commonwealth was the first southern state to pass civil rights legislation in 1966. That was during the term of Gov. Ned Breathitt, grandfather of Bevin’s Chief of Staff Blake Brickman.

“Kentucky did not follow Jefferson Davis when he was alive, when we did not secede from the union,” Cunningham said. “So the question is why should he hold such a place of honor in the state capitol?”

Rep. Reginald Meeks, D-Louisville, said Bevin’s concern about revising history is misplaced.

“But like so many who cling to the romantic, yet morally bankrupt idea of a  lost cause, the governor’s concern is misplaced,” Meeks said. “The revisionist history is in the very marble and stone of these monuments.”

He called the glorification of Davis and other Confederate symbols “an immoral abomination of truth, honor and the principles of Christianity.”

But there was one dissenter: Joseph Springer of Louisville.

“You can’t just call everyone who’s white racist because they take up for their heritage — because I’m not a racist,” Springer told a woman who wished to debate the issue. “Some of us just respect our ancestors,” he told the woman.

Those calling for the statue’s removal saw it much differently.

Dr. Betty Sue Griffith said Davis committed treason and his statue was placed in the rotunda in 1936 “to serve as an everlasting symbol of white supremacy.”

She said the statue has for 81 years reminded every African American who sees it “that Kentucky honored and supported the institution of slavery.”

“Make no mistake about it,” Griffith said. “The Civil War wasn’t about tariffs; it wasn’t about cotton; it was about slavery. The South lost. Get over it.”

State Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, called on other lawmakers to join those calling for the statue’s removal, calling it “a stain on the character of Kentucky and a reflection of the face of denial that racism is alive and well (today).”

University of Kentucky History Professor and Chair of the African American Heritage Commission, Gerald Smith, cited the words on a plaque on the Davis statue, “Patriot – hero – statesman,” but then added, “What we try to do today is to come and tell the rest of the story.”

Recounting contributions of African Americans to the state’s and nation’s history, Smith said African Americans “have a right to have a voice. We’re tired of being marginalized.”

He concluded with the words of Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish philosopher and writer.

“No lie can live forever,” Smith said, adding, “We come here today to speak truth to power.”

Neal and Meeks said, if the statue hasn’t been removed by the time the General Assembly convenes in January, they will sponsor legislation to have it removed.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnhifrankfort.

Jonathan Greene

The Register Editor

Richmond, Ky.

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