On June 30, 2020, following calls made by community members, Centre faculty, and students, members of what was then the Underrepresented Minority Faculty Working Group (Professors Dina Badie, Eva Cadavid, Satty Flaherty-Echeverria, Shana Sippy, now the UFC), along with Professor Rick Axtell and the Office of Religious Life, and Professor of History Jonathan Earle wrote a letter to Dean Ellen Goldey and incoming President Milton Moreland expressing our strong belief that Centre College must make the necessary financial contributions to ensure that the monument be removed as quickly as possible. Included along with the letter was a history of the monument written by Dr. Jonathan Earle, and drawing on research conduced by Danville Historian Mary Girard and History Professor Tara Strauch. This history has been elaborated upon here.
Although it stands on the property of the Presbyterian Church, adjacent to campus, the statue looms over a number of Centre's residential halls. Its presence is a form of symbolic violence which our community—in particular, our Black students, faculty, staff, and Danville community members—must confront on a daily basis. The statue's story is itself complicated and is a symbol of the many forms of systemic racism and violence in Danville and Centre's past and present. The presence of this monument in Danville is a reminder that racism has long been and continues to be institutionalized, authorized, and celebrated, while the realities of racist indignities, terror, and violence—such as the lynching of Al McRobards on Christmas eve of 1866--find no such public memorial or acknowledgement. The College, like the town of Danville, must confront and reckon with its history and ongoing complicity with respect to institutional racism.
It was and remains our strong belief that just as the Centre College administration, despite the great expense, invested the necessary funds to ensure that the college could reopen safely in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it must also do what is required to make our campus a safe and welcoming environment in the midst of a national reckoning with our country's racist past and present.
In our letter we wrote:
The monument must be removed so that we may return to campus safely, without a towering, physical symbol of racism overlooking the College’s residential spaces, in the midst of a crisis of racial injustice in Kentucky and across the nation. Expecting community members to make individual donations while the College stands idly by, purposefully overlooking its history, would communicate an indifference to racial injustice. Positively, this is a powerful and welcome opportunity for Centre to act on its commitment to change, and to begin a new academic year on a transformative new path, especially for its students and alumni. As the success of the recent George Floyd Cornerstone Fund demonstrates, our community stands eagerly ready to support initiatives of equality and justice in the life of Centre.
Since June, a movement to remove the statue has continued. Members of the Presbyterian Church have worked to broker a compromise and have raised significant funds toward the relocation of the statue. Although there are many who believe that the funds being used to relocate the statue could be put to much better use—such as funding research and education about the African American community in Danville or sponsoring scholarships for African American students to attend Centre—the many parties with jurisdiction over the statue have chosen relocation rather than simple removal.
Centre students have become a strong force mobilizing for the statue's removal and the Centre Faculty for Justice lend our full support to their efforts and calls for change. Among their efforts they have gathered almost 900 signatures on an open letter and petition calling for Centre's administration to act, as well as raising funds to cover the remaining cost of the statue's removal. They have also produced a website that provides resources and information about the monument's history and reminding the college community that, despite not being officially on the college's property, it is still Centre's problem to rectify.
Although it stands on the property of the Presbyterian Church, adjacent to campus, the statue looms over a number of Centre's residential halls. Its presence is a form of symbolic violence which our community—in particular, our Black students, faculty, staff, and Danville community members—must confront on a daily basis. The statue's story is itself complicated and is a symbol of the many forms of systemic racism and violence in Danville and Centre's past and present. The presence of this monument in Danville is a reminder that racism has long been and continues to be institutionalized, authorized, and celebrated, while the realities of racist indignities, terror, and violence—such as the lynching of Al McRobards on Christmas eve of 1866--find no such public memorial or acknowledgement. The College, like the town of Danville, must confront and reckon with its history and ongoing complicity with respect to institutional racism.
It was and remains our strong belief that just as the Centre College administration, despite the great expense, invested the necessary funds to ensure that the college could reopen safely in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it must also do what is required to make our campus a safe and welcoming environment in the midst of a national reckoning with our country's racist past and present.
In our letter we wrote:
The monument must be removed so that we may return to campus safely, without a towering, physical symbol of racism overlooking the College’s residential spaces, in the midst of a crisis of racial injustice in Kentucky and across the nation. Expecting community members to make individual donations while the College stands idly by, purposefully overlooking its history, would communicate an indifference to racial injustice. Positively, this is a powerful and welcome opportunity for Centre to act on its commitment to change, and to begin a new academic year on a transformative new path, especially for its students and alumni. As the success of the recent George Floyd Cornerstone Fund demonstrates, our community stands eagerly ready to support initiatives of equality and justice in the life of Centre.
Since June, a movement to remove the statue has continued. Members of the Presbyterian Church have worked to broker a compromise and have raised significant funds toward the relocation of the statue. Although there are many who believe that the funds being used to relocate the statue could be put to much better use—such as funding research and education about the African American community in Danville or sponsoring scholarships for African American students to attend Centre—the many parties with jurisdiction over the statue have chosen relocation rather than simple removal.
Centre students have become a strong force mobilizing for the statue's removal and the Centre Faculty for Justice lend our full support to their efforts and calls for change. Among their efforts they have gathered almost 900 signatures on an open letter and petition calling for Centre's administration to act, as well as raising funds to cover the remaining cost of the statue's removal. They have also produced a website that provides resources and information about the monument's history and reminding the college community that, despite not being officially on the college's property, it is still Centre's problem to rectify.
