Brunswick removing Confederate monument from park

Leaders of a Georgia city have voted to remove a Confederate monument from a park where it has stood since 1902
Leaders of a Georgia city have voted to remove a Confederate monument, which is not pictured, from Hanover Square.

Credit: Brunswick-Golden Isles C&VB

Credit: Brunswick-Golden Isles C&VB

Leaders of a Georgia city have voted to remove a Confederate monument, which is not pictured, from Hanover Square.

Leaders of a Georgia city have voted to remove a Confederate monument from a park where it has stood since 1902.

Commissioners in the port city of Brunswick voted 4-1 Wednesday to take the monument out of Hanover Square. Officials had debated what to do about the monument since July, when the initials BLM — for Black Lives Matter — were spray-painted on it during a protest.

Brunswick Mayor Cornell Harvey said the monument will initially be moved into storage. The city commission hasn’t found a new home for it yet.

“There has to be a Confederate museum somewhere in the country that would take that,” Harvey said.

Before anything happens, Brunswick officials are trying to ensure they take down the monument without running afoul of state law. Legislators updated the law last year to make it more difficult to remove and relocate Confederate statues, saying they must be moved to a “site of similar prominence, honor, visibility and access.”

Harvey said city officials believe the city doesn’t own the Confederate monument, which would give them the right to remove it from city property, The Brunswick News reported.

If the monument remains in the park for a while, the city could put up interpretive markers to put the Civil War in a broader historical context. The monument has been criticized for its inscription that describes the war as an “unconstitutional” invasion of the South by Union troops.