Louisville mayor and university president assault Confederate memorial
City of Louisville Democrat Mayor Greg Fisher and University of Louisville president James Ramsey – currently engaged in a battle with the school’s Board of Trustees – want a memorial commemorating Confederate veterans in their city removed.
As reported by a Louisville newspaper, a court order has temporarily halted the monument’s removal:
Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman issued the order Monday morning against Mayor Greg Fischer and metro government, barring them from moving, disassembling or otherwise tampering with the 70-foot-tall monument.
This is one of many monuments to Confederate soldiers across the United States.
But there’s only one statue of a well-known post-bellum Louisville business man standing, and the mayor and university president are not suggesting that it be removed from public display there.
James Graham Brown (1881-1968) was a prominent citizen of Louisville, known for his successful real estate development projects, including a hotel named after him. Later in life, he was recognized for philanthropic ventures.
But before the philanthropy,
Brown was an opponent of organized labor, once threatening to sell his hotels to the highest bidder if employees organized. Brown would not desegregate his hotel and theater until public accommodation laws forced change. When "Porgy and Bess" which had an all black cast was playing at the Brown Theatre, local blacks were barred from attending. During the early 1960s, civil rights sit-ins were held in front of the Brown Theatre.
So how come His Honor and the president are not demanding that the Brown statue be removed?