HOUSTON — The attached video originally aired on June 16 when the statue was removed from Sam Houston Park.
The Spirit of The Confederacy, one of Houston’s most prominent Confederate monuments, has a new home. The City of Houston has officially transferred the statue to the Houston Museum of African American Culture.
The statue was erected in 1908 by the Robert E. Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was a monument to soldiers who fought for the South, but critics call it a troubling reminder of America's racist past.
It was quietly removed from Sam Houston Park in June after standing there for more than a century. Some weren’t happy when it was first announced the statue would be moved to the Houston Museum of African American Culture to educate visitors about racism in America.
“It’s a slap in the face to African Americans,” Houston’s NAACP President Dr. James Douglas said at the time. “I don’t think the idea was well thought out.”
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Douglas likens it to a statue of Hilter being placed in a Holocaust museum.
“Statues are erected for one purpose and that’s to honor people,” he said.
HMAAC CEO Emeritus John Guess, Jr. said they don’t shy away from controversy.
“Unpacking controversial or difficult topics run deep in our organizational DNA,” Guess said. “In the case of The Spirit, we think healing comes from taking control of negatively impactful symbols and turning them into teaching opportunities to help ensure they never have power again.”
“The overwhelming majority of people who have reached out to us or we have reached out to -- especially those familiar with our history -- trust that our ability to take power from this symbol will help our community heal,” current HMAAC Board president Cindy Miles said.
The debate over whether to remove Confederate monuments, many of which were built by White supremacists as a response to Black civil rights efforts, intensified after the murder of Houston native George Floyd.
Houston had started the conversation in 2017 when Mayor Sylvester Turner established a task force that later recommended that they be removed from city property. The Houston Endowment paid for the transfer.