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Owensboro Is One of the Latest Towns Being Asked to Move Confederate Statue

MAPIO.NET via WKYU

An Owensboro man is leading an effort to move a Confederate statue off the Daviess County Courthouse lawn.

Twenty-two-year-old Jesse Bean started a petition on the website Change.org to convince local leaders to act.

Bean says he was inspired to take on the issue following the weekend violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and efforts in Lexington to move a pair of Confederate statues away from that city’s downtown.

Bean says the local statue should be displayed at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History.

“The main argument against removing the statue is that it’s a part of history, and when I think of history, I always think of the museum. And that’s where you can have those conversations with your child, or whoever you want to---bring them there and talk about the history of the confederacy, and why it’s important, and because it is important,” Bean said.

The statue features a Confederate soldier holding a gun and looking toward the sky, with the engraved words, “To our Confederate Heroes, 1861-1865.”

It was unveiled at the Daviess County Courthouse in 1900.

Bean says the city has a longstanding invitation to host a statue honoring Union soldiers next to the Confederate monument. Bean thinks it’s an option worth considering

“I will work with the NAACP to possibly get a fundraiser started to put a monument there, since the offer still stands, and maybe we can work it out that way and find some kind of middle ground,” Bean said.

Bean said he’s received about an equal amount of support and opposition to his efforts so far.

© 2017 WKU Public Radio

Kevin is the News Director at WKU Public Radio. He has been with the station since 1999, and was previously the Assistant News Director, and also served as local host of Morning Edition. He is a broadcast journalism graduate of WKU, and has won numerous awards for his reporting and feature production. Kevin grew up in Radcliff, Kentucky and currently lives in Glasgow.
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