The Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans announces it is marching into battle in the legal arena to protect statues and memorials honoring their fallen ancestors.
“Our organization opposes in the strongest terms possible the removal, renaming, modification, or reinterpretation of any monument, memorials, or the names of streets and governmental institutions that are named after and that honors veterans of any conflict, or the Founding Fathers and historical figures,” an SCV statement says. “Removal and modification is nothing more than an attack on true historical facts and is highly dangerous and evil.”
Most of the Confederate monuments were erected over 100 years ago, the organization says, and “were financed by the mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of Confederate veterans to honor their service and sacrifices.”
Among several statue removals in recent weeks, one that has especially caused a stir occurred in Rockdale County. On June 30, the group accuses County Commission Chairman Oz Nesbitt of violating Georgia State Law 50-3-1 by making a unilateral “executive decision” to remove the Confederate Veterans’ Monument from the Rockdale County Courthouse grounds. The monument honoring the Rebel veterans has sat just off Maine Street between Court and Milstead Avenue next to the Rockdale County Courthouse since 1913.
This unilateral action by Nesbitt compelled the Georgia Division of the organization to retain a lawyer and file a Complaint for Damages and Injunctive Relief. Click Here for a Copy of the Legal Complaint.
Spokesman Martin O’Toole says his group “has a good chance” to win in court and reverse Nesbitt’s action. O’Toole is also hopeful of winning a court fight regarding a Henry County memorial. And the Georgia SCV Division also seeks to protect an Athens statue on downtown Broad Street from being moved to a remote field.
Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines are American veterans designated by an act of Congress in U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 approved on May 23, 1958. “They deserve the same respect as all American veterans and we believe that an attack on one set of veterans is an attack on all American veterans,” the SCV says in response to those who seek to remove memorials to the Confederate dead.
