The Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the organization’s Lawrenceville chapter and two Gwinnett County men have appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court their lawsuit over the county’s removal of the Confederate monument from the square in downtown Lawrenceville.
The filing came days after the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled Gwinnett County has sovereign immunity against lawsuits over the monument’s removal.
Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans argued in their appeal that the county is not immune from lawsuits under the state law that protects Confederate monuments.
“Naturally, we are disappointed that the Court of Appeals has made a decision which we think is contrary to law and should be overturned by the Supreme Court,” said Martin O’Toole, the spokesperson for the Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The Georgia Supreme Court will decide whether or not to take up the case.
The monument was installed in 1993. It consists of granite slabs protruding from a base, similar to a tall gravestone, with carvings of a Confederate flag, a Confederate soldier, the dates 1861-1865, a quote from Winston Churchill and the words “Lest we forget.”
Credit: Casey Sykes
Credit: Casey Sykes
The Lawrenceville chapter of the Confederate descendants’ group raised the money and hired the contractors for the monument’s construction. The club subsequently paid for repairs.
The County Commission removed the monument in February 2021 after it was repeatedly vandalized, saying the monument would remain a target and posed a threat to public safety. It is now in storage.
A year later, the city of Lawrenceville and nonprofit groups installed a marker on the same corner memorializing Charles Hale, a Black man lynched there in 1911.
Gwinnett County Commissioner Kirkland Carden, who represented downtown Lawrenceville when the Confederate monument was removed, said Gwinnett County has offered to cover the costs of its transfer to a Confederate cemetery in Jackson County.
Credit: Alia Malik
Credit: Alia Malik
The Sons of Confederate Veterans rejected the offer, saying it would violate state law. Governments are allowed to relocate monuments if necessary for construction projects, but the law says those structures must move “to a site of similar prominence, honor, visibility and access within the same county or municipality in which the monument was originally located” and specifically excludes museums, cemeteries or mausoleums unless the monument was originally there.
The Confederate group is suing for damages, including triple the cost to repair or replace the monument.
Gwinnett County Commissioner Jasper Watkins III, who has represented downtown Lawrenceville since redistricting two years ago, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson said she was pleased with the Court of Appeals’ decision.
“We remain committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful community that reflects the values of all our residents,” she said in a written statement.
The Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans also recently sued to stop a planned museum near the world’s largest Confederate monument, a carving of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson at Stone Mountain Park.
The Legislature commissioned the museum to “tell the truth” of the park’s history, including its connections to the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists during the Civil Rights Movement. The Sons of Confederate Veterans said the planned exhibit violates another state law expressly designating Stone Mountain Park as an “appropriate and suitable memorial for the Confederacy.”
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