Williamson County approves panel to study whether Confederate statue should be moved

Williamson County commissioners have approved forming a committee of 15 residents to gather public opinion about whether a Confederate soldier statue in front of the county courthouse since 1916 should be moved.

The commissioners on Tuesday approved forming the committee in a 4-1 vote, with County Judge Bill Gravell voting against it.

Each member of the Commissioners Court will pick three members of the committee in December. The panel will present the results it gathers from the public in March to the court along with a recommendation.

Commissioner Russ Boles put the item on the agenda for the court to consider.

“I want to be clear my intention is not to discuss if the statue is appropriate,” Boles said before the court voted on it. “The statue is appropriate because it’s part of our history. That’s not changing.”

“What I would like with the committee to help the court look at is if the historic courthouse is the appropriate location,” Boles said. “In 1916 we knew what the citizens of Williamson County thought, but it is 2020. It’s 104 years later and I think it’s fair to ask that again.”

Bastrop and Caldwell county commissioners voted in July to remove Confederate statues from their courthouse lawns.

But Boles’ suggestion to form a committee met with some resistance from residents on Tuesday.

“When I first heard about this on the agenda last night I was dumbfounded,” said Shelby Little, a retired colonel who stands in a Confederate uniform by the statue in April during Confederate History Month. Little spoke to commissioners before they approved Boles’ motion. “I could not believe what I was reading. Then I became very, very angry,” said Little.

Little said Boles was caving into the “historic illiterate” and the ”Austin mob.“

But other county residents spoke in favor of forming the committee to study whether the 21-foot-tall statue, erected in 1916 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, should be moved.

David Breed of Georgetown said he has a young granddaughter who is biracial and he didn’t know what he would say to her if she ever asked him to explain what the statue was. He said that although his great-great-grandfather fought in the Confederacy, he wants the statue to be removed.

“The statue is a relic of the past,” Breed said. “It’s a symbol of a time the county is struggling to move away from.”

Gravell, who voted against forming the committee, said there already was too much tension and anger in the community from fear of coronavirus and the loss of revenue from COVID-19 shutdowns.

“I think it (the committee) will add more fuel to a fire that is already explosive,” Gravell said.

Gravell also said he was concerned about the safety of the people who would be on the committee because he had seen members of a “Democratic socialist group out of Travis County” get into screaming and yelling matches with the public near the statue.

A Williamson County Group called the “Wilco Patriots” host rallies every Tuesday to remove the statue, said Bryan Register, a participant. “No socialists from Austin are involved to the best of my knowledge,” he said in a text message on Tuesday.

“At events here in Williamson County, our rallies have been threatened, spat at and assaulted along with having harsh words said. We have in a few cases responded with harsh words of our own.”

Previous attempts in Williamson County to discuss whether the statue should be removed have not resulted in any action.

In 2017, a group called the Civil Rights Initiative held discussions between supporters and opponents of moving the monument. After the discussions, the county commissioners voted against submitting an application to the state for a plaque mentioning slavery to be placed next to the Confederate statue.

In June, the Georgetown City Council voted against working on a resolution to ask county commissioners to look at options for the Confederate statue, including moving it to a city-owned cemetery.

The Williamson County commissioners do not have the power to remove the statue or add a plaque. They would need to submit a request to the Williamson County Historical Association, which in turn would send a request to the Texas Historical Commission.