Focus on this artwork and explore the Criticism and removal.
The statue was shot at more than once, vandalized regularly over the years, and more recently defaced with Black Lives Matter slogans, but always repaired. Protestors once tried to pull it down by tying it to a train. It was protected by a padlocked gate. At the time of its removal, it had been splattered with pink paint and spray-painted with the word "monster."In July 2015 the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County sought permission to plant landscape screening in front of the monument to obscure its view from the interstate, but the request was denied by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.The statue was criticized by then-councilwoman and former mayor Megan Barry in the wake of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, as "an offensive display of hatred that should not be a symbol for a progressive and welcoming city such as Nashville." Then-governor Bill Haslam said "It's not a statue that I like and that most Tennesseans are proud of in any way," in 2015.On August 15, 2017 the mayor of nearby Oak Hill, Heidi Campbell, wrote an open letter to Governor Haslam urging the statue be obscured with landscaping.The statue was removed on December 7, 2021, although the Confederate flags surrounding the statue remained in place. The statue was damaged during its removal, and was later disassembled and moved from the site.  According to the BONT, the statue will not be remounted or displayed.
Charleston church shooting Tennessee Department of Transportation Confederate Megan Barry Black Lives Matter Oak Hill Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County Bill Haslam