FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky commission will not remove a statue of Jefferson Davis from the state Capitol, saying the likeness of the Confederate president juxtaposes nicely with an imposing statue of fellow Kentucky native Abraham Lincoln as a testimony to the state’s divisive history during and after the Civil War.
The Historic Properties Advisory Commission voted 7-2 on Wednesday to keep the statue in the cavernous rotunda but add an “educational context” to the display for the thousands of schoolchildren and other visitors who pass through the state Capitol every year. By state law, the commission has final authority over what is displayed in the Capitol.
“I bet we are the only capitol rotunda in United States where you can walk in to see a statue of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln in that proximity. That speaks volumes about the divide that Kentucky felt during the Civil War,” commission chairman Steve Collins said just before voting to keep the statue. “Removing the statue of Jefferson Davis makes it impossible for us to tell that story the way that we can tell it with both statues there.”
The vote by the all-white commission followed the racially motivated slayings of nine black church members in South Carolina that prompted a re-examination of Confederate symbolism across the South. The man accused in the killings had posed for online photos with the Confederate battle flag.
The commission took its vote after receiving about 3,000 public comments. Of those, about 1,800 asked to keep the statue while 1,225 called for it to be removed.
