Plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from Dallas’ Lee Park have been halted by a newly filed restraining order.
The Dallas City Council passed a motion to remove the statue on Wednesday morning. Hours later a judge passed the motion filed by Hiram Patterson and members of the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
‘It’s a historical figure,’ Patterson told NBC Dallas Fort Worth. ‘I don’t believe in taking down historical figures, right or wrong, for what they did.’
On the march: This statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee and a soldier was to be removed Wednesday after a 13-1 vote by the city council – but the decision was blocked
After US District Judge Sidney Fitzwater granted the temporary restraining order (TRO), Gary Bray, the Texas Division’s former commander, raced to stop the removal.
‘The monument means a lot to me,’ said Bray. ‘Had to hit that first line of police and tell them I had an order from the judge.’
The group said that the city had not followed proper procedure in its vote.
The statue was already strapped up to a crane intended to remove the statue when the judge’s order reached police.
That night police surrounded the statue to ensure that it was not damaged or removed by anti-Confederate-statue protesters.
A hearing on the TRO is scheduled for this afternoon.
The removal resolution – which also told the Mayor’s Task Force to look for other statues and streets dedicated to Confederate figures – was made in a 13-1 vote after a proposal by four black council members.
Sandy Greyson was the only one to vote against it, saying ‘I’d like to give the Task Force time to do its work as the original charge to it was made by the mayor’.
‘We do not need a Task Force to tell us right from wrong,’ countered Philip Kingston. ‘We are capable moral leaders.’
The local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans obtained a temporary halt order just as it was to be lifted away by crane. The order is to be discussed in court today
The resolution said that further action may be taken against the other Confederate monuments in the city in November.
Before the resolution was passed, the Lee Park and the Arlington Hall Conservancy said it supported removing the statue.
It noted that the statue was owned by the city, not the conservancy, and said it would ‘address’ the space left by the statue at a later date.
It also said it hoped to rename itself sooner rather than later.
‘We are hoping that process can be expedited, and the Council will simply return the park’s moniker to Oak Lawn Park which was the original designation of the property when the park was established in the early 1900s,’ it said.
Ex-councilwoman Diane Ragsdale supported the resolution, saying: ‘The confederacy was about racism and white supremacy and so are the monuments dedicated to this cause.
‘These monuments are not just stone and metal. They are not public art. They are symbols of a hateful past.’
But ex-State Rep Will Hartnett was less pleased. ‘I doubt that you have any idea how much money this purge will cost taxpayers,’ he said.
‘If you carry through with this resolution, the cost will be in the many millions of dollars.’
Dallas representatives say that if the statue is removed it will be kept in a city-owned storage facility until the Mayor’s Task Force decides what will be done with it in the long term.
The moves come amid much controversy over statues of Confederate leaders. In August a statue of Lee (pictured) in North Carolina was damaged.
The move comes amid mounting pressure around the country to remove statues to Confederate soldiers in the wake of the violence seen in Charlottesville, Virginia last month.
That saw one die and dozens injured in clashes between white supremacists protesting the removal of a Lee statue and counter-protesters.
Since then a number of statues have been damaged, including one of Robert E Lee at Duke University’s Duke Chapel in Durham, North Carolina, on August 19 which was subsequently removed.
Also today, New Jersey senator Cory Booker and California representative Barbara Lee introduced versions of the Confederate Monument Removal Act to their respective houses.
It would demand the removal from the National Statuary Hall Collection of statues of people who voluntarily served the Confederacy.
Some 12 Confederate generals are included in the collection, including Lee and Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson.
That came a day after the Washington National Cathedral in DC announced it would remove stained glass windows honoring Lee and Jackson.
The controversy has also spread to other figures, such as Christopher Columbus, whose involvement in genocide and rape led to a bust of his head being smashed up in Yonkers, New York, at the end of August.
The concern has spread to statues of other historical figures, such as Christopher Columbus. A bust of Columbus was smashed in Yonkers, New York, in August