A judge has ruled that the statue of a Confederate soldier that has been on the lawn of the Daviess County Courthouse since 1900 can be moved.
Daviess Circuit Court Judge Lisa Payne Jones said in her April 29 ruling that the statue is owned by the Fiscal Court, which has the authority to “dispose of it as they choose.
The Kentucky Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has claimed they own the monument.
The nationwide controversy about Confederate statues was ignited after the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017 organized by white nationalists and other extremists, when 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others injured.
The Owensboro Times reports Judge Jones noted that after that event, citizens who found the Daviess County statue objectionable complained to the Fiscal Court. .
Three years after the complaints from local citizens, led by the Owensboro NAACP, Daviess County Fiscal Court voted to remove the monument from the courthouse lawn. That decision came on Aug. 6, 2020 in a unanimous vote by the Fiscal Court.
The attorney for the Daughters of the Confederacy said no decision has been made yet about an appeal.
Note: This story reflects a change made to report the date of the unanimous decision by the Daviess County Fiscal Court.
