Owingsville:
Officials in a Kentucky county have delayed a vote on whether to remove a Confederate statue from the grounds of a courthouse. Members of the Daviess County Fiscal Court were expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution that would have returned the statue to the Kentucky Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and moved it to property owned by the chapter. Instead, a commissioner presented a surprise motion to postpone the vote until Aug. 6 that passed on a 3-1 vote, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reported.
The Rev. Rhondalyn Randolph, president of the Owensboro NAACP, has led the charge for the statue’s removal. She said she was disappointed by the delay, telling the paper, “In my heart and mind, I knew something like this would happen.” Randolph said she is concerned that the Daughters of the Confederacy may want to place the statue somewhere prominent that would continue the “glorification of the Confederate cause.” Susan McCrobie, president of the Kentucky Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, applauded the delay, saying she would like to see the statue remain in public view. “The idea that they signify white supremacy is not truthful,” she said. “These monuments were strictly meant to be memorials.” In emails obtained by the paper through an open records request, McCrobie wrote that the group would not consider proposals from the NAACP on where to place the memorial, saying the organization had “no standing” to offer an opinion on the matter.
Randolph noted that those pushing removal of the statue include a coalition of “people from all walks of life working to move our community forward.” “We will continue to make our voices heard and will work to have the statue taken off of public property because it is inappropriate for it to be there,” she added. Judge-Executive Al Mattingly cast the sole vote against the delay. He said the issue has been ongoing since 2012 and neither side was likely to change their position because of a delay.
