Commissioner: Efforts to remove Confederate statue in Georgetown a 'no-win' situation

Protestors say they are still asking Williamson County commissioners to remove the statue of a Confederate soldier erected on the courthouse lawn in 1916, but at least one official said that is not likely to happen.

"It's a real dilemma," said Commissioner Terry Cook. "I know the (Commissioners) Court doesn't want to deal with it at all." Most of the county offices will be moving out of the courthouse in a few years to a new administration building, she said.

A museum could take over the courthouse space and display the monument, Cook said. She said she would only want the monument to be displayed with its history explained to not only include that it was put there to honor fallen soldiers, but also "to intimidate any Black person who wants to walk into the door of this courthouse."

The rest of the commissioners did not respond to a request for comment.

Two Confederate monuments also remain on the Bastrop County courthouse lawn four years after the commissioners voted to remove them. One Bastrop commissioner declined to comment this week and two others did not respond to a request for comment.

The 21-foot statue in Georgetown was paid for with money raised by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was placed on the courthouse square during the Jim Crow era, when Southern states enacted laws that enforced racial segregation.

The statue has been controversial for several years, with some people asking that it be removed because the Confederacy supported slavery and others who want it to stay where it is, saying they want to honor their ancestors.

The Williamson County commissioners do not have the power to remove the statue commemorating Confederate soldiers and sailors who fought in the Civil War without submitting a request to the Williamson County Historical Association, which in turn would send a request to the Texas Historical Commission.

The Williamson County Grays, an organization that honors Confederates who fought in the Civil War, have said they want the statue to stay on the courthouse lawn. Members of the group have often been at the square at the same time as protesters who want the statue removed.

"We are there to honor our forefathers who were fighting for the independence of their new country, just like the American and Texas colonists before them," said Shelby Little, a retired colonel who is a member of the Grays.  "We are also there to counter the presence of extremist groups (BLM, Antifa, Wilco "Patriots", De-Confederate Georgetown/Austin, and others) who have spent the last 4 years futilely attempting to destroy or remove the Confederate Memorial," Shelby said in an email.

He also said that the people who have said the statue intimidates Black people are white. "They are "liars and race-baiters," Little said.

More: New Georgetown billboard urges removal of Confederate statue at Williamson County courthouse

Several local groups in Williamson County, including the Wilco Patriots and Courageous Conversations, have held protests on the courthouse square, including one on July 4 to remove the monument.

The statue could be moved to a museum or the city-operated International Order of Odd Fellows cemetery, said Georgianne Hewett, a member of Courageous Conversations' Move the Monument Committee.

"Is there a way that we can honor these soldiers, these dead, these citizens of Williamson County that does not say to our other citizens these are the same people who were fighting to keep our Black citizens and ancestors enslaved?" she said.

"There were a lot of Confederate monuments that cities and counties took down after George Floyd was killed ," Hewett said, "so the attempts here just have not been successful mainly because I think it is hard for our public officials to have the courage to take it up."

Floyd died in May 2020 while in police custody after Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck while Floyd pleaded for air , sparking protests across the country.

Retired U.S. Army Maj. Jason Norwood, a Black Williamson County resident who is a member of the Wilco Patriots, said he plans to keep asking commissioners to remove the statue. He filed a federal lawsuit against the county and the Williamson County Grays that was dismissed in 2023 for lack of jurisdiction. The lawsuit claimed that the Confederate statue should be removed because it violates the federal civil rights of Black residents and the U.S. Constitution.

Norwood said he is collecting signatures from people who want the statue to be removed and plans to present the petition to the Commissioners Court. He has collected 12,000 signatures so far, he said.

"I have two daughters and there is a monument in my town to the people who believe they belong enslaved and in chains," Norwood said. "How am I not supposed to fight against that?"

Cook said if the monument was moved to a cemetery, it would probably be defaced. She said the county also has no warehouses it can move the statue to and no buildings whose foundation can support its weight.

"Its a no-win situation," she said. "I think the city of Georgetown would probably love to see it gone so the courthouse square is a place of peace but that’s just not going to happen."

She said if the courthouse becomes a museum, then maybe the monument can be displayed in pieces inside of it.

The Commissioners Court has not yet discussed what will happen to the courthouse once most of the public offices move to a new administration building, said Connie Odom, a county spokeswoman. She said construction is expected to be completed in December 2025 for the 120,000-square-foot building at the corner of Southwestern Boulevard and SE Inner Loop in Georgetown.

More: Williamson County approves panel to study whether Confederate statue should be moved

County Judge Bill Gravell asked Commissioner Valerie Covey to develop a plan for the courthouse, Odom said.

"She has said that she would be in favor of other county offices moving into the courthouse once the new administration building is finished and occupied," said Odom. "In addition, she also has said that the Williamson Museum could occupy part of the historic courthouse. The museum currently is in a county-owned building."

"We are looking at all county properties and trying to master plan for current and future needs," Covey said.

A representative of the Williamson Museum declined to comment about the Confederate statue.

Previous attempts in Williamson County to discuss whether the statue should be removed have not resulted in any action.

In 2017, a group called the Civil Rights Initiative held discussions between supporters and opponents of moving the monument. After the discussions, the county commissioners voted against submitting an application to the state for a plaque mentioning slavery to be placed next to the Confederate statue.

In 2020, the Georgetown City Council voted against working on a resolution to ask county commissioners to look at options for the Confederate statue, including moving it to a city-owned cemetery.

The commissioners also voted in October 2020 to form a committee to study the monument but never appointed any committee members.

Commissioner Russ Boles, whose idea it was to from the committee, has previously said several people provided information since 2020 about the statue's history and suggestions about what to do with it, so there was no longer the need to form a committee.

The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center paid for a billboard in 2021 to be erected for a month in Georgetown east of Interstate 35. It said "REMOVE the Confederate monument from our Square."

A member of the Williamson County Commissioners Court can place an item on the agenda to discuss whether or not to remove the statue. But the item can't be discussed by the court until another member seconds the motion during a meeting.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Commissioner: Efforts to remove Confederate statue in Georgetown a 'no-win' situation