Kentucky panel votes to remove Davis statue from Capitol

By Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky commission voted Friday to remove a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the state capitol, echoing similar actions across the South to take down the symbols of slavery.

The Historic Properties Advisory Commission met at the request of Gov. Andy Beshear and then voted 11-1 to move the 15-foot (4.5-meter) marble statue of Davis to a state historic site in southern Kentucky where the Confederate leader was born. The commission is responsible for all the momuments in the state capitol.

The decision came two days after another Davis statue was toppled by protesters in Virginia. It comes amid a rapidly unfolding protest movement to pull down Confederate monuments around the U.S. after the death of George Floyd. The African American man died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him down by putting his knee on Floyd’s neck.

Beshear, who said he expected the commission to remove the statue from the ornate Capitol Rotunda, called it an historic day.

“It was past time for this vote and for this action,” Beshear said in a statement. “But what it will mean is that … every child who walks into this Capitol feels welcome, and none of them have to look at a symbol and a statue that stands for the enslavement of their ancestors.”

The Davis statue occupies a corner of the Rotunda near a bronze likeness of Abraham Lincoln. Both men were born in Kentucky. The statues of the Civil War adversaries are among several on display in the Rotunda, a popular place for rallies when the legislature is in session.

Advocates have for years been asking state officials to remove the Davis statue. In 2018, officials removed a plaque declaring the only president of the Confederacy to be a “Patriot-Hero-Statesman.”

Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press

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