Confederate monument at McDonough Square removed overnight

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — A Confederate monument that stood for more than 100 years is no longer standing

Crews removed the statue from the McDonough Square overnight.

Very few people were on hand to see the removal because police blocked the streets around the square.

One man told Channel 2 Action News that the landscape will never be the same.

“It’s done lost all its existence. The square is no longer a square anymore,” said resident Stanley Layfield.

It’s believed the Daughters of the Confederacy put up the statue in 1910.

Close to 14,000 people signed a petition to have it taken down.

The Henry County commission voted three weeks ago to remove it from the square, except for one commissioner.

Very few people witnessed history.

“We were held back, our freedom of speech was held back because they wouldn’t allow us to get off the curb over here,” Layfield said.

Wednesday morning, the latest shrine to the Confederacy is no longer a fixture on the square.

The words engraved below the statue still stands.

In 2017, Channel 2 Action News talked to people on both sides of the debate to remove the monument. The Young Democrats of Henry County and DeKalb County said the monument was offensive. Supporters of the monument said the group needed to get a life.

There have been a number of Confederate monuments and statues that have come down in north Georgia in recent weeks.

Last month, a huge crowd cheered as crews removed a Confederate memorial from the Decatur Square. The monument was erected in 1908 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Earlier in July, a Confederate monument that stood for 107 years in Conyers was removed. County officials are talking about relocating the statue to the old cemetery in Rockdale County where there are Confederate graves.

Another metro county OKs Confederate monument removal The monument, which is believed to have been built in 1910 by a local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, is in McDonough?s downtown square on land owned by the county,

Cox Media Group