Cape City Council votes to remove, store Confederate monument

The Cape Girardeau City Council voted Monday to accept most but not all of the June 23 recommendation from the city’s Historical Preservation Commission (HPC) regarding the fate of the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.) monument in Ivers Square.

The 6-1 vote, with 4th Ward Councilman Robbie Guard dissenting, calls for “the immediate removal to storage” of the 14-1/2 foot tall white slab marker.

The council’s vote authorizes storage of the monument “until such time a permanent home can be found for (it), including covenants to ensure it is appropriately contextualized.”

Stricken from the commission’s recommendation was wording ensuring the new future home of the monument would not be on public land nor supported by public funding.

“I wish we had a clear-cut choice for (the monument’s) new home,” Guard said. “This (decision) gives me a heartburn.”

A group of demonstrators outside of City Hall advocate for the removal of the local Confederate States of America monument Monday, while listening to members of the public speak during a Cape Girardeau City Council meeting inside of the building.BEN MATTHEWS

Approximately 60 people, one-quarter of them African American, attended the 90-minute work session where the monument’s fate was discussed.

A proposal backed by the not-for-profit Kellerman Foundation and endorsed by Mayor Bob Fox to relocate the 12-1/2 ton monument to Old Lorimier Cemetery did not come as a formal proposal before council members.

No fewer than 27 people came to the rostrum to address city leaders — 15 white, 12 Black. Twenty-two spoke in favor of removing it, and four spoke in favor of having it remain at Ivers Square.

A small sampling of public comment:

From left, Steven Thrasher of Cottonwood Point, Missouri, Rodney Neville of Cooter, Missouri, and Clint Lacy of Marble Hill, Missouri, on Sunday protest the potential removal of the Confederate States of America monument from Ivers Square in Cape Girardeau. "We're protesting the removal of American history; it's no longer just about the Confederacy," Neville said. Lacy added, "If they do move it to Old Lorimier Cemetery, I understand that visits are by appointment only. I hope they open the cemetery during the day, and they don't place a plaque on it. We know what the monument represents; it doesn't need an explanation." Lacy said the group, which promoted the gathering on Facebook, had been protesting daily since Friday and that the most present at any one time was five people.Southeast Missourian photo

Mayor Bob Fox listens as members of the public share their thoughts about the local Confederate States of America monument during a Cape Girardeau City Council meeting Monday at City Hall.BEN MATTHEWS

• “We can’t be one Cape while celebrating (the monument’s) terror,” Geneva Allen-Patterson said.
• “Move (the monument) where we don’t have to see it daily, where it can have the correct narrative,” Ramona Bailey said.
• “Confederates were traitors and don’t deserve a monument,” Amber Moyers said.
• “If we move a monument today, do we change the name of Cape Girardeau tomorrow?” David Glastetter asked.
• “Hitler is in a history book but (he’s) not on a monument,” Pastor Stafford Moore Jr. said.
• “I’m tired of the divisiveness ... please follow the HPC recommendation,” Cindy Meyer said.

The decision to amend the HPC recommendation to remove language about not putting the marker on public land and using public funding to support it came as a recommendation to the City Council by deputy city manager Molly Mehner and moved for action by 6th Ward Councilwoman Stacy Kinder.

Mehner suggested the HPC’s complete recommendation would “significantly reduce” the city’s options for where next to put the controversial monument, first placed on Morgan Oak Street in 1931 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The marker was moved in 1995 to its current venue, which is the future site of Cape Girardeau’s new city hall.

HPC member Mark Bliss, who attended the session, said he believed the commission would be receptive to a move to a museum, adding the commission’s intent was to get the marker off of city property but with appropriate signage.

Moving the monument to the River Campus was suggested, but the 2nd Ward’s Shelly Moore, the only African American member of the council, said she doesn’t like the idea, saying instead the city should “put it (in storage) until we decide where it can go. This will save us all a lot of pain.”