Chris Kenning

Louisville Courier Journal

Following an hours-long hearing Wednesday, a judge dissolved a restraining order blocking the removal of a controversial 121-year-old Confederate monument near the University of Louisville.

The decision by Jefferson Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman, who also denied the injunction sought by plaintiffs, allows the city to move ahead with dismantling the monument, but attorneys for the city agreed in court to do no work until a ruling with written findings was issued.

Acknowledging that emotions were running high, McDonald-Burkman said plaintiffs failed to make their case.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs - including the Kentucky Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who sued this month and won a temporary restraining order - said they would wait to see a ruling, which will include a decision on a city motion to dismiss the lawsuit, before discussing whether to appeal.

But during the hearing, plaintiffs offered scant evidence to support their arguments, which included that Mayor Greg Fischer can't move the monument because the city doesn’t own it; that the city violated historic preservation rules in its decision; and that it could be damaged. The city countered with testimony and evidence suggesting it was within its rights, and the ruling appeared likely to clear the way for the city to eventually proceed with relocating the monument.

On April 29, Mayor Greg Fischer and U of L President James Ramsey announced that the 1895 monument - at the Belknap campus, across from the Speed Art Museum on Third Street - would be dismantled and moved to an undetermined location because it represents a painful chapter in history.

"I am pleased with the judge's ruling that the city owns the monument and has the right to move it," Fischer said in a statement Wednesday. "We will await the judge's final written ruling before taking next steps. In the meantime, my team will be working with the Commission on Public Art and the University of Louisville to evaluate disassembling, restoring and relocating the monument."

"I think the community and country is better for this decision today," said Ricky L. Jones, professor and chair of Pan-African Studies, who criticized the statue's continued presence because of its link to slavery and racism.

But supporters, including attorneys for the plaintiffs, said they believed the city's true plans were to send it to a landfill - which Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell called "preposterous." And for some, the move touched a nerve at a time when many cities and states are reassessing public symbols of the Confederacy.

"The floodgates have opened to destroy all Southern heritage," Fred Wilhite, an official with Kentucky's Sons of Confederate Veterans who is a plaintiff, testified at the hearing.

One of his attorneys, J. Andrew White, asked, "When does it stop? Jefferson was a slave owner. Does he go next?" he said, referring to the statue of Thomas Jefferson outside the mayor's office.

O'Connell said it was a difficult issue in which "emotions are going to run high." But in his closing arguments, he said that while he understands "the veneration" those with Confederate ancestors might feel for the monument, "the students who cross the street every day are who are African-Americans have descendants too."

Plaintiffs in the case differed on whether it mattered that the monument remained at the U of L site or in Louisville. Some plaintiffs said they didn't mind if it moved somewhere appropriate, so long as the city didn't destroy it. O'Connell said the city is in talks to explore options.

During the hearing, O'Connell and other attorneys for the city refuted claims that the relocation would violate federal National Historic Preservation Act laws or regulations, state laws on criminal desecration of “venerated objects” and Kentucky Military Heritage Commission protections, as well as Louisville Metro Ordinances on historic preservation.

Plaintiff's attorneys said a petition to have it listed as a protected military heritage site was filed a day before the hearing with the Kentucky Military Heritage Commission. But that isn't likely to apply to its current placement, attorneys for the city said.

The city called a Louisville historic preservation official, who testified it wasn't a protected site, and a regional state highway official, who said that the state right-of-way on Third Street did not include the monument and that the state had no ownership of it, as plaintiffs had contended. The judge said the only evidence presented was that it belonged to the city.

Civil rights activist Carla Wallace, who attended the hearing, said she believes the case may have struck such a chord partly because the issue of race in America has become especially prominent in recent years.

Reporter Chris Kenning can be reached at ckenning@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4697.

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