5 things to know about Ky.'s Confederate monument

LOUISVILLE — This city's mayor and the University of Louisville's president announced Friday that they are removing a 121-year-old Confederate monument on the university's Belknap campus.

Here are five things you should know about the controversy:

1. The monument has been a source of controversy on campus for decades. Most recently, Ricky L. Jones, professor and chairman of Pan-African Studies, blasted the statue's continued presence and called on Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer to yank the monument down.

2. The monument will be moved to a new location, which has yet to be determined. In the meantime, the statue will be put in storage, where it will be disassembled, cleaned and repaired.

3. The statue was dedicated to honor the "rank and file of the armies of the South" and to "our Confederate dead," according to the University of Louisville's website. It sits on city-owned property along Third Street, which will be widened after it is removed, and the Kentucky Women’s Confederate Monument Association erected it in 1895.

Confederate memorial at Ky. university to be removed

4. In 2002, after student protests, the University of Louisville Board of Trustees unanimously approved a plan to spend about $2 million to convert the area around the Confederate statue into Freedom Park as a tribute to Louisville civil rights leaders.

5. Some historians, such as Metro Councilman Tom Owen, have said efforts to remove the Confederate statue are nothing more than attempts to "scrub" history.

Follow Phillip M. Bailey on Twitter: @phillipmbailey

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