HAMILTON, Ga (WRBL) – A Harris County man is fighting to keep a Confederate statue in the middle of town square.
Charles Hartley says he heard there was a possibility that the city council would be asked to remove the statue. He said his sole purpose for standing before the council was to defend the man on the square and he was going to do everything he could to do that.
If you walk up the steps in the town square and down the pathway, you’ll run into this Confederate Statue. It’s been there since 1910.
Hartley along with several others want to keep it that way. “This is our heritage.”
Hartley, who is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, spoke before the Hamilton City Council and pleaded them not to remove the statue. The Council said no one requested that.
“There’s a lot of people in Harris County that believe.. not for the repression .. not for the slavery.. it was a moment in time… and it’s gone. How can we be better people if we don’t believe how we were bad people?,” Hartley asked the council
Mayor Pro-Tem Ransom Farley reiterated that no one had come to them with the proposal. “This man right here is protected by state and federal law. This council right here and the Mayor, we are all in agreement that he will be protected. We’re not going to do anything to him.”
That made Wayne Hubbard a happy man.”The war was about states rights. It was not about slavery and that soldier up there just walked home after the war.”
There were some small fireworks.. but everyone let with the same understanding that the statue won’t be removed from the town square.
Heritage or no heritage.