LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – The city of Little Rock has removed from a city park a statue honoring a militia unit that formed to fight for the Confederacy, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said.
The city on Thursday removed the Memorial to Company A, Capital Guards statue from MacArthur Park in downtown Little Rock, Scott said. The Capital Guards statue was placed at the park in 1911 during the United Confederate Veterans Reunion, he said.
“The Capital Guards were memorialized without concern for those in our community who have suffered grave injustices and whose ancestors were viewed as less than human so that they could be subjugated to terror and forced to provide free labor,” Scott said.
The statue, which had been vandalized earlier in the week, will be placed in storage and the city will work with the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism to find an appropriate location for it, Scott said.
Many Confederate symbols and monuments have been damaged or brought down by demonstrators and removed by local authorities since the death of George Floyd, an African American man whose death has become a worldwide symbol in demonstrations calling for changes to police practices and an end to racial prejudice.
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