Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin files brief supporting return of Confederate monument to Little Rock park

In the video above from 2020, KARK 4 News reports on when the Confederate monument was removed from McArthur Park.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has filed a brief supporting a lawsuit seeking to return a Civil War monument to a Little Rock park.

Griffin’s July 15 filing sided with Little Rock resident Jay Clark’s suit, who wants the monument commemorating a Confederate Civil War company that served in Little Rock returned to McArthur Park after the city removed it in 2020. The lawsuit states that the city violated the state Monument Protection Act of 2021 by removing the monument.

Griffin agrees with Clark’s suit, stating that the city acted unconstitutionally in removing the statue. Claiming that it was within the city’s rights to do so is not legally sound, the brief states.

The monument, an 8-foot bronze statue of a Confederate soldier topping a 16-foot granite column commemorating Company A, Capitol Guards, was dedicated in 1911 during a meeting of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was vandalized by what appeared to be varnish in June 2020 during the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd.

Clay’s lawsuit maintains that the city violated the 2021 law despite having become law after the city removed the statue because the act applies to all historical monuments in Arkansas.

The suit states Mayor Frank Scott Jr. ordered the monument’s removal without city council approval, which was a further violation.

The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 1, 2023. Clay’s attorney filed an amended complaint in July, adding the seven commissioners of the Arkansas History Commission and the Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, Shea Lewis, as defendants.

Little Rock’s attorney filed a motion on Thursday asking for the amended complaint to be struck or they be given a continuance to contend with the eight additional defendants.

Court records do not list a trial date.

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