The Confederate monument outside the Tarrant County Courthouse was removed Saturday morning.
Tarrant County Commissioners voted unanimously last week to have the monument, which was built in the 1950s, removed, citing years of concern that it was a symbol of racism and oppression.
“I just didn’t feel like something that was viewed as a racist symbol by many should be on public grounds,” said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley.
According to Tarrant County, removal cost just under $17,000. Pastor Kiev Tatum has long been a proponent of removing the monument and placing it in a museum where it can be understood in its full context.
“When you bring them down you at least have an opportunity to heal,” Tatum said. “I don’t say destroy them, I say preserve them in museums so we can always look back on that time in history,” he continued.
But others believe by removing the monument, history is slipping away. Tarrant County Commissioners will decide in the months to come what will ultimately be done with the monument.
“The civil war happened in the United States of America and thank god they(Confederacy) lost but how did they lose, who was involved, those things have to be talked about,” Chaplain Rich Stoglin said.
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Stoglin believes keeping the monument in public and contextualizing it with a marker would better serve the public in years to come. But Judge Whitley and Pastor Tatum believe it is time to move on and use the here and now to start fresh.
“It has been removed and we need to move forward,” Judge Whitley said.
