Madison City Council Overturns Confederate Monument Decision, Supports Removal

The Madison City Council backed the removal of a Confederate monument in Forest Hill Cemetery Tuesday after it overrode a commission decision that called for the monument to remain.

Council members voted 16-2 to overturn the Landmarks Commission’s ruling that barred the removal of a large, stone monument that lists the names of about 140 prisoners-of-war buried in a section of the cemetery known as Confederate Rest.

“You don’t have discussion in a cemetery. You have reflection, and you have memories, and this (monument) brings up memories that are not so pleasant in our history,” said Council Vice President Sheri Carter.

Sheri Carter

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In April, the City Council voted to remove the monument. But since Forest Hill Cemetery, 1 Speedway Road, is a designated landmark, the Landmarks Commission needed to weigh in on whether the removal was appropriate.

Commissioners voted 3-1 last month to reject an application for the monument‘s removal, arguing that taking it out would go against the city’s historic preservation ordinance.

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The monument was installed in 1906 and funded by the Daughters of the Confederacy, a group some have argued promotes a false narrative about the Civil War that glorifies the Confederate cause. But others have argued that the monument simply acts as a grave marker for weathering headstones in the Confederate Rest.

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