A bronze statue honoring late civil rights activist and politician John Lewis was installed in Decatur, Georgia on Friday. The statue replaced an earlier Confederate statue, which was removed in 2020.
John Lewis was a prominent Black politician who is well-known for his role in the Civil Rights Movement in America. After the movement, Lewis joined politics and has represented the Atlanta area in the House since 1986. He was the longest-serving member of the Congressional Black Caucus. One of his most iconic moments was when he advised young people to get into “good trouble”, that is, agitate and break rules for good causes. A month before he died in 2020, Lewis extended support to the Black Lives Matter movement.
The 12-foot bronze statue was installed in the town square. It is created by sculptor Basil Watson. While the installation was done on Friday, the statue won’t be unveiled to the public until August 24.
The Confederate obelisk was installed by the United Daughters of Confederacy in 1908. For more than a century, the monument stood there despite mild criticisms. However, it came under intense scrutiny in 2017 following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Groups such as Hate Free Decatur urged the city council to remove the statue but to no avail. In 2019 a plaque was installed nearby to give added context to the statue. In 2020, during the George Floyd protests, numerous Confederate statues were toppled in various parts of the US. Citing a threat to public safety, a court order was finally obtained to remove the obelisk in 2020.