DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - A group of high school students outside Atlanta are calling on city officials to remove a cannon near a county courthouse that honors the Creek War of 1836, which saw the removal of Native Americans from the South.
Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett said in a statement that a resolution supporting the removal of the cannon near the old DeKalb County courthouse will be considered at a city commission meeting Monday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Garett said Decatur High School students asked for the removal of the monument, which was placed at the property by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1906.
“Just having the commission on our side gives us that boost to have this cannon removed,” Bethani Thomas, a senior at the school, told the newspaper. She said students are holding a Zoom protest on Monday to call for its removal.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy declined a request for comment by the newspaper.
A Confederate monument located a few feet away from the cannon was removed in June following an order by a Georgia judge. The city had asked the judge to order the removal of the 30-foot (9-meter) obelisk, which was often vandalized and marked by graffiti, saying it had become a threat to public safety.
The group Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights, which is supporting the students, has created an online petition urging the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners to remove the cannon. The group wants artists to submit proposals for a public art project that can replace it.
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