John Lewis statue replaces Confederate monument

A large bronze statue of the late civil rights leader and politician Congressman John Lewis is installed where a monument to the Confederacy was brought down in 2020,

The replaced monument is one of many Confederate symbols that has been removed following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd

(Image credit: Ron Harris / AP Photo)

By Peter Weber, The Week US

published 19 August 2024

What happened

Workers installed a 12-foot-tall bronze statue of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) in front of the DeKalb County Courthouse in Decatur, Georgia. The statue of the civil rights icon, who represented the area in Congress for decades, replaces a Confederate monument that stood in the spot for 112 years, until June 2020.

The Daughters of the Confederacy erected a 30-foot-tall obelisk outside the courthouse in 1908 as part of its promotion of the "Lost Cause narrative of the Civil War, which downplays or ignores the role of slavery as the war's cause," The New York Times said. It was "one of at least 230 Confederate symbols to be removed, relocated or renamed" amid a push by racial justice advocates following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

Basil Watson, the Jamaica-born artist who sculpted the Lewis statue, was there as it was installed. "It's exciting to see it going up and exciting for the city because of what he represents and what it's replacing," Watson said to The Associated Press.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.