page_title: Confederate Monument in Louisville
section_title: Controversy in 2016
hierarchical_section_title: Confederate Monument in Louisville / History / Controversy in 2016
caption_attribution_description: English: Base of Confederate Monument with fence and construction equipment.
context_page_description: The Confederate Monument in Louisville is a 70-foot-tall monument formerly adjacent to and surrounded by the University of Louisville Belknap Campus in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Relocation of the monument to Brandenburg, Kentucky, along the town's river front began November 2016, and was completed in mid-December. The granite and bronze structure was erected in 1895 by the Muldoon Monument Company with funds raised by the Kentucky Woman's Confederate Monument Association. The monument commemorates the sacrifice of Confederate veterans who died in the American Civil War.
  As with many monuments to the Confederacy, some community activists, such as Louisville's late Reverend Louis Coleman, had called for the removal of the monument from such a prominent location due to an association with the history of civil rights abuses against African-Americans. In the past, both the city and university opposed such proposals. In 2002, the university announced an effort to add civil rights monuments in the vicinity of the Louisville location as part of a redevelopment called "Freedom Park". Two million dollars of funding, principally for the park, was secured in late 2008.
context_section_description: At a press conference, on April 29, 2016, the Mayor of Louisville Greg Fischer and University President James R. Ramsey explained their intention to immediately remove the monument and place it into storage where it would receive cleaning. They stated the monument would be reconstructed at a new location but the location had not yet been determined.
  On May 2, 2016, a Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge signed a temporary restraining order filed by the Kentucky Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans along with several private individuals. The next day, the Jefferson County Attorney, representing the Mayor, asked for more time to prepare a defense for the intended monument removal. The Court granted an extension to May 25, 2016.
  The plaintiffs contended that Mayor Fischer, by attempting removal of the monument, was violating state and federal preservation law. On Thursday May 5, 2016, the attorney for the plaintiffs amended the complaint arguing the monument does not belong to the City of Louisville nor the university. The revised complaint contended the monument belongs to the State of Kentucky as it is a part of the transportation right of way.
  At a hearing on May 25, 2016, citing lack of evidence to issue an injunction, the Circuit Court Judge dissolved the temporary restraining order. The City of Louisville agreed to hold the removal until the Judge completed her written ruling. Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman dismissed the lawsuit on June 20, 2016, allowing the city to remove the monument. In her ruling, the Judge agreed there was no title or other document establishing legal ownership of the monument, but that the plaintiff's arguments were not sufficient.
  These monuments, as well as other symbols of the Confederacy, are now viewed as a romanticism of the past, pride in 'Southern Heritage,' history to be acknowledged and lessons learned, reminders of slavery or indicative of present racist sentiment. The court recognizes, even if it does not agree with, these often-times competing emotional elements. However the court must remain objectively focused on the legal aspects...emotional and political aspects will be left for others to debate.
  — Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman, 2016 Ruling
  Subsequently, Mayor Fischer stated no work would proceed until the city art commission had met and chosen a new site. In July 2016, the Louisville Commission on Public Art met with the public to discuss options of where to move the monument. Suggestions to the commission included a river front park in Brandenburg, Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, and a site in Paducah owned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
caption: Base of Confederate Monument with fence and construction equipment, May 2016.
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