The debate over the Confederate monument in Liberty’s Fairview and New Hope Cemeteries continues as the Liberty City Council seeks legal advice to see what authority they have over the situation. The Hilltop Monitor published an article in October 2020 with information about the push to remove the statue. More information has since emerged.

The Liberty City Council voted 5-3 in favor of having an attorney look into the legal aspects of the land on which the monument sits. Because the land was bought in 1900 by a group of Confederate veterans, the land legally belongs to them and whoever it has been passed down to. However, markers on cemetery land must denote the place a body has been buried. 

Since no human remains have been buried under the monument in over 100 years, the city may have the authority to revest the land back to the city. The attorney is looking into whether this is an option and will update the city council soon. 

Harold Phillips, city councilman for the first ward, recognizes the complexity of the situation. 

“When you purchase a piece of land in a cemetery, it’s to bury a body,” said Phillips. “Since a body hasn’t been buried under that marker, which by the way is not marking any particular person at all, can we take back the land where that monument is and then do something with the monument that’s on the land?” 

Clay Countians for Inclusion is the largest group of supporters for removing the statue. They have gone so far as offering a $10,000 donation towards its removal. The group hopes to increase awareness about racism and inclusivity in Liberty and all of Clay County. They have attended numerous city council meetings and made their position clear: Confederate monuments, specifically the one in Fairview and New Hope cemeteries, celebrate slavery and racism and should be removed. 

Dr. Judith Dilts is a former professor of biology at William Jewell College and an active member of Clay Countians for Inclusion. Dilts said their goal is to “encourage [the city council] to show that the city of Liberty has certain values and does not support racism in any form.”

Clay Countians for Inclusion’s education efforts extend beyond advocating for the removal of the Confederate statue. They have recently started a book club for the community to increase their understanding of racism and its role in Clay County. They also support city council candidates who have voiced their support for removing the Confederate monument.

“It is the city council that will ultimately make the decision about whether they have the will to remove that monument, and if they can’t do it by revestment then they do have other means. That’s why it’s important that whoever gets on the city council has the same values Clay Countians for Inclusion are evidencing as it comes to racism, diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Dilts. 

 A number of Clay County residents oppose the removal of the statue. The more informal group, Save Our Monument, led by Gieselle Fest, has also spoken at city council meetings and insists that the monument is a grave marker for Confederate soldiers. Their Facebook page seeks to find any information about the soldiers’ families and the location of their graves. 

In fact, a bronze plaque was recently added to the monument with the names of 13 soldiers and at least 3 wives who they believe are buried there. As long as the statue is a grave marker, the group argues it cannot be taken down. 

“This is a cemetery. It is a grave marker. If you start to take down a cemetery marker, a grave marker, where do you stop?” said Fest.                       

In addition to the new plaque added to the monument, a security camera has been hung in a nearby tree. The city council did not approve the addition of the plaque or camera and had no knowledge of its placement until a later date. Neither Phillips nor Dilts know who placed the camera there or where the video footage goes, but it is widely believed to be someone from Save Our Monument. 

Theresa Byrd, leader of Clay Countians for Inclusion, plans on being buried in the Fairview Cemetery one day. 

“I pray, I ask God, before that day comes, for that monument to be gone, that it will not be lording over that cemetery when I am laid to rest there,” said Byrd.

The city council’s decision on what to do with the monument, whether by revestment or other means, will be hotly contested no matter what the outcome is. Their diligence, however, shows their dedication to making Liberty and Clay County a more inclusive community.     

Erected in 1904, a monument of a nondescript Confederate soldier stands in the Fairview and New Hope Cemeteries in Liberty, Mo. Situated on an obelisk and etched onto the monument is a dedication to the memory of the Daughters of the Confederacy of Clay County.

The obelisk features several etchings – including the Confederate Battle Flag and a section honoring the Confederate soldiers of Clay County. The monument resides close to a portion of the cemetery where African Americans were historically buried.

An element of the greater controversy, both in Liberty and nationally, has been over the purpose and meaning of these statues. Whether these monuments are solely Confederate monuments, or if they serve as grave markers for war dead. In the case of the Fairview monument, supporters of removal say it is the former.

“Some of the people who do not want it removed call it a grave marker, but it’s actually just a monument, a memorial, there are no persons named on there that are buried in that area at all,” explained Dr. Judith Dilts, a local resident active in the movement and former Jewell professor of biology.

Liberty’s monument is entwined both in its past and in its future to the national history and discussion regarding the Confederate monuments.

For years, there has been a long-running national debate about monuments and statues dedicated to the Confederacy or figures tied to the Confederacy. Fierce arguments occur throughout the country as Americans have struggled to come to terms with what these monuments mean. Proponents of removal generally argue that the monuments represent a celebration of slavery, which was a cornerstone of the Confederacy. Opponents argue that to remove them would amount to an erasure of American history.

Debates have emerged about the future of Confederate monuments across Missouri as well, including at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville, Mo. – where the state recently held an informational meeting to receive feedback from residents.

Liberty’s debate about the Confederate monument offers a microcosm of this national debate.

The Fairview monument’s construction in 1904, decades after the Civil War, is not an unusual origin for these statues. Historians generally chart the construction of Confederate monuments to two primary surges in the twentieth century.

First, in the early twentieth century, during the proliferation of the Jim Crow era that disenfranchised Black people, there was a surge in erecting monuments to the Confederacy spearheaded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was during this period that the Fairview monument was constructed.

Supporters of the contemporary movement to remove the statue cite this history.

“The purpose of it was to promote the ‘Lost Cause’ of why we had a Civil War. Not because we enslaved people but because of states’ rights or economic reasons,” said Dilts.

Next, during the 1920s through the 1940s as Civil Rights agitation grew, White Southerners responded with another wave of Confederate monument construction.

This history has led many historians to note that, given the history of the construction, the purpose of most of the monuments was to further entrench white supremacy and not to honor war dead.

In Liberty, a movement to remove the monument built momentum over the summer, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Numerous petitions were started that called for the monument’s removal, and groups of citizens began to organize around the goal of having the monument removed.

One of the most prominent groups in opposition of the monument, Clay Countians for Inclusion, has emphasized contextualizing the monument within history. This organization notes that the monument has etched onto it a direct reference to Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest, infamous for killing three hundred surrendered, mostly African American Union soldiers, during the Fort Pillow Massacre, subsequently became the first grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan.

Those active in the movement, like Dilts, see raising public awareness in Liberty about the monument and its history as a key goal. The ultimate decision is going to be made by the City Council, so Clay Countians for Inclusion and others have been active in attending City Council meetings. During these meetings, a period of time is devoted to hearing from local residents. Since August, people have attended meetings to weigh in on the monument and its potential removal.

“Because it honors white supremacy, it honors enslavement. It represents values that we as citizens of Liberty don’t want to aspire to. I’d always play in my head: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and we don’t have liberty and justice for all in Liberty as long as that monument stands,” Dr. Dilts said, when asked why she personally believes the monument should be removed.

“Removal is going to be up to the City Council. People can contact their City Council representatives, they can go to the Council meetings and speak during Citizens’ participation. They can write letters, make phone calls, send text messages to the mayor, to the City Council, and the City Administration supporting the removal of the statue and monument from the Fairview cemetery. They can also solicit the support of their associates and others within their inner circle or sphere of influence to let their voice be heard about the recommendations about the removal of the monument,” Dr. Dilts explained, when asked about how others could help.

Presently, the Liberty City Council has not made a final determination on the future of the monument. On Nov. 9 the City Council will hold a general meeting.

Almost two weeks ago, after rightly being called a racist for flying the Confederate Flag, Richard Geisenheyner, a Liberty resident, hung a sign outside his house reading “Slaves 4 Sale.” Though it is truly puzzling as to how Geisenheyner thought the sign would disprove his racism, the entire incident was not at all surprising.

Like most of the U.S., Liberty has not reconciled with its racist past, so our racist past has become our racist present. Whether it’s our lack of diversity, the lack of attention given to the wonderful work done by Dr. Cecelia Robinson at the Clay County African American Legacy or the fact that Clay County refused to fly the American Flag over the Courthouse until World War I, Liberty has a long history that it hasn’t faced.

We were all reminded of this quite harshly by the events that occurred in Charlottesville with subsequent unrest in cities across the nation. Calls for the removal of Confederate statues and other racist symbols dominated news cycles for weeks. Now, though the news has moved on, we must not lessen our resolve to remove these racist symbols. Liberty needs to reconcile with its racist, slaveholding past, and this can start with the removal of the Clay County Confederate Soldiers Memorial located in Fairview Cemetery.

The Clay County Confederate Soldiers Memorial. Photo courtesy of Find A Grave

The Clay County Daughters of the Confederacy erected the monument in 1904. The Daughters of the Confederacy is a racist organization dedicated to “preserve places made historic by Confederate Valor”and “to record the part taken by Southern women in patient endurance of hardship and patriotic devotion during the struggle and in untiring efforts after the War during the reconstruction of the South.”

There was not valor on the side of the Confederacy. The Confederacy stood for the systematic enslavement of black people, plain and simple, and there is nothing valorous about that. Furthermore, the old loyal women of the South were not “patriotic,” as there is nothing patriotic about fighting to uphold slavery.  To state that “they weren’t all bad,” or “there were very fine people on both sides” is to ignore structural inequality. It is true, there were probably some people who didn’t personally believe in slavery on the side of the Confederacy, but fighting for the Confederacy—or not standing against it—implicated them in the racism. We need to stop honoring racists, and Liberty is doing just that if it continues to allow this monument to stand.

Some might say that instead of taking Confederate statues down, plaques should be erected to provide context. Though it is important for people to understand this history, the monuments still need to be taken down. The word “monument” refers to a structure whose purpose is to commemorate or honor a person or event, and we shouldn’t be in the business of commemorating the Confederacy. Even if the plaque notes the Confederacy’s racism, the symbolism still stands.

These monuments need to be moved to museums or just gotten rid of entirely. There is a difference in public perception between artifacts in a museum and public monuments. In a museum, the perception is that one is to learn something from the artifacts. In the case of these monuments, it would be to learn that at one point in U.S. history people fought to uphold slavery. In museums, artifacts are meant to be examined and questioned.

Though people are meant to learn from public monuments, this perception greatly varies from that of museum artifacts. Public monuments are visual reminders about a society’s values. They reinforce a way of thinking in the subconscious of people who view them.

However, I’m not completely against plaques. It is known that slaves were sold in Clay County, but I have seen nothing to mark the place where the slave blocks stood. Instead, we have honored slaveholding families like the Withers with a road and Alexander Doniphan, a slaveholder, with a school, among other things. There are no plaques that I know of to commemorate the desegregation of Liberty schools. The list goes on and on. We need more monuments to honor our cities’ accomplishments towards the goal of racial equality and fewer monuments that honor white-supremacy.

I believe Liberty just needs to do more to acknowledge its own history. Though there are some great monuments, like the “Freedom Fountain” on the Liberty Square, and an entire walking tour of African-American history, these resources are not promoted by the city almost at all. Resources are available, but they are not as accessible as they should be, so people in our city aren’t as educated about our history or racism as well as they should be, which leads to disgusting incidents like Geisenheyner’s sign.

Freedom Fountain on the Liberty Square. Photo courtesy of Clay County African American Legacy.

Instead of putting up a plaque next to the monument in Liberty, the entire monument should be taken down and replaced with one honoring someone who fought for the Union, a slave, an abolitionist or someone else who fought for justice and against racism. There are plenty of options. Honoring the Confederacy is not just racist, it is, in the words of W.E.B. DuBois a betrayal of “humanity and humanity’s God.”