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Letter: It's time to replace statue in downtown Cumming
Hiram Parks Bell

When I read your coverage of Saturday’s Black Lives Matter demonstration on the Cumming square, my heart swelled with admiration. All praise to Candice Horsley, Keisha Johnson, and the rest of the event’s brave organizers, and to the nearly 1,000 people who came out to oppose police brutality and show solidarity with the county’s communities of color.

As a teenager growing up in Forsyth, I stood on that same square in 1987, and watched as Klansmen marched the streets carrying handmade nooses, cheered on by hundreds of local residents. That a peaceful Black Lives rally could happen there this week is truly amazing, and everyone in the county should feel proud and hopeful.

Looking through photos of the day, I couldn’t help but note that even as demonstrators spoke out for justice and racial equality, they were watched over by a statue honoring Hiram Parks Bell, a former Confederate Congressman, outspoken white supremacist, and lifelong defender of what he called “white over black domination.” Erected in front of Cumming City Hall in 2002, this monument to bigotry is a blight on the face of the city, and an insult to all who rallied Saturday.

In an ideal world, two new statues would be placed where the Bell statue now stands: one celebrating Forsyth’s original African American residents, and one memorializing Rob Edwards, who was lynched on that same ground in 1912. But even if the county isn’t ready to erect new monuments, it is long past time to take down the old one.

So, I write to say to Forsyth’s government, church, and community leaders: If you truly want to improve the county’s reputation — if you want to show that it really is a new day in Forsyth — take down the Hiram Parks Bell statue at Cumming City Hall. Join communities all over the country in facing the pain and damage that such memorials cause. Do what you know is right, and take it down.

Patrick Phillips

Professor of English at Stanford University, Author of “Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America”