Hattiesburg City Councilman Jeffrey George has reached out to local people about the Confederate soldier’s statue that stands outside the Forrest County Courthouse. On June 16, he put out the city government’s desire to have the statue moved.
“Overall, I think the conversations that I’ve had and the people that have reached out to me support relocating that monument,” George said on June 17, the day after the city council meeting. “For the council to pass this resolution is just affirming our stance and letting the citizens of the city of Hattiesburg know where the city council specifically, and really, the entire city government stands in terms of relocating the statue.”
Hundreds of area residents marched to the county courthouse on June 13-14, when they spoke about the injustice and racism that has been encountered in the community.
Then on Monday, June 15 the Forrest County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to make the relocation of the statue a referendum election. County voters will decide during the Nov. 3 General Election whether to move the Confederate soldier statue.
George said the placement of the big statue can be more appropriate.
“I think that it’s worth considering that at the time that monument was put into place, not all individuals were seen as equals,” he said. “I think historians would say that monument was put into place as a way to perpetuate that mentality.”
The Forrest County Courthouse, of course, is a central location for residents who have legal and government issues. However, George said the area has a history of dealing with people differently.
“As a location, people are supposed to go to not only absentee vote and register to vote,” he said, “but they also go to a place where they expect to receive equal treatment under the law. To have a monument out front that represents a time and people that did not believe that all people are created equal, it just sent seems like an oxymoron to me.”
George also spoke about how the younger residents want to look forward to a more modern future.
“What I think in a lot of ways what you’re seeing is people of all ages,” he said. “But specifically, (they are) younger people within our state that want to see Mississippi move forward. Young people view some of these monuments and our state flag as things that they consider to be holding us back. As a state that really struggles to retain our young people that go through our great universities and community colleges, there are things that I think we need to do as a state to try to retain those individuals.”