CONFEDERATE MONUMENT VOTE: After months of public meetings, hours of spirited debate and public demonstrations, the Caddo Parish Commission voted to remove the Confederate Monument from the Parish Courthouse grounds last night in a vote that was split 7 to 5 in favor of removal. A report in today’s Shreveport Times reveals that those who made comments prior to the vote, considered the original intent of the monument as a way to honor the memory of those who fought for the confederacy. Whereas others expressed the monument as a symbol of racial injustice which has no place near a court of law.
After the vote, the head of the Caddo Parish Chapter of the NAACP, Lloyd Thompson said, "I heard a lot of folks talk about why it should stay, why it should go. But I think now, the decision has been made, now it's time for us to move on to heal our community and to make our community a great parish. Where we can recruit companies, we can keep folks here; it's just a new day in Caddo Parish." The Confederate monument was erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy on courthouse grounds where it has stood since 1906. A new location for the monument has yet to be determined.