Texas Town Divided: Push to Remove Confederate Monument Intensifies

In 1916, a monument was erected in the city of Georgetown, Texas, and this past Saturday, April 12th 2025, a large group of Georgetown residents let it be known that they did not want the statue standing there any longer.

A Symbol of Inequality: The History of the Georgetown Statue

In front of the Williamson County Courthouse in the Georgetown Square is a Confederate statue. The monument has the Seal of the Confederate States of America on it, the Confederate Battle Flag, and a statue of a Confederate Soldier. The monument was erected, during the Jim Crow era of our nation, as less of a monument to the Confederate Army and instead as a message to black Americans that they were not equal to the white man.

Years of Effort: Past Attempts to Remove the Monument

A large number of the Confederate monuments throughout Texas that sit in Courthouse squares and in Texas Parks have been removed since 2017. Even though the Georgetown monument still stand it isn't from a lack of effort. Last year a group of the cities residents pushed for the city commissioners to take down the statue. Before that, in 2017, Williamson County residents tried to have it removed during a commissioners court meeting, and in 2021 the Wilco Patriots were able to push for the removal by leasing a billboard in Georgetown. The county was even sued last year by a Williamson County man on the basis that the statue violated the civil rights of the Black residents of the county.

National Movement: Calls for Removal Across the Country

All across the country there has been a push in recent years to have Confederate monuments and statues removed. Military bases like, Ft Hood, were renamed in order to no longer memorialize the people who once fought against the very armies that live and train on those bases today.

There were some people in attendance on Saturday that do not want to see the statue removed. Every year that group gets a little smaller, and that's a big deal.