During a tense meeting on Monday, the Forrest County Board of Supervisors voted to put the future of the Confederate monument near the circuit court building in downtown Hattiesburg to county voters in November.
District 4 Supervisor Rod Woullard initially motioned for the Confederate monument to be removed from county-owned property, and he recommended a committee be tasked with finding a suitable place for the monument.
District 2 Supervisor Sharon Thompson seconded the motion, but the vote failed 3-2 with supervisors David Hogan of District 1, Burkett Ross of District 3 and Chris Bowen of District 5 voting against it.
Bowen then offered a motion for a November ballot referendum to remove all monuments from county property, which would have included the Confederate monument and the Vernon Dahmer Sr. statue that was recently installed in front of the circuit court building. The motion died without a second.
Hogan offered another motion for a November ballot referendum with two questions: one to remove the Confederate statue and one to remove the Dahmer statue. The statues would be removed to a “suitable place,” according to the motion.
“To even juxtapose the two is ridiculous,” said one demonstrator, and Woullard said the motion was “an insult” to the memory of Dahmer, a civil rights leader in Forrest County who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1966.
The Confederate monument functions as a memorial for Confederate war dead and as an honorarium for Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate army general who lived from 1821-1877.
Forrest, who was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, is known for the massacre of more than 300 black Union soldiers following the Battle of Fort Pillow in April 1864. He is also known for serving as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan from 1867-1869.
Hogan’s motion died for a lack of second, and Bowen reintroduced his motion for a ballot referendum that would offer voters the chance to remove the two statues. The motion again failed.
Thompson, citing a board “stalemate,” motioned for the Confederate statue's future to go on the ballot in November and for the Dahmer statue to remain. Woullard seconded the motion, which passed 3-2 with Ross and Bowen voting against.
The presidential election is set for Nov. 3, and the question of the future of the Confederate monument will be added to that ballot.
