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Caddo Commission Votes For Confederate Monument Removal

Courtesy: National Parks Service

CONFEDERATE MONUMENT VOTE:  After months of public meetings,  hours of spirited debate and public demonstrations,  the Caddo Parish Commission voted to remove  the Confederate Monument from the Parish Courthouse grounds last night in a vote that was split  7 to 5 in favor of removal.   A report in today’s Shreveport Times  reveals  that those who made comments  prior to the vote,   considered  the original  intent of the monument as a way to honor the memory of those who fought for the confederacy.   Whereas  others  expressed  the  monument as a symbol of racial injustice which  has no place  near a  court  of law.  

Credit Courtesy: Caddo NAACP
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Courtesy: Caddo NAACP
Lloyd Thompson, President - Caddo Parish NAACP

After  the  vote,  the head of the Caddo Parish Chapter of the NAACP, Lloyd Thompson  said, "I heard a lot of folks talk about why it should stay,  why it should go.  But I think now,  the decision has been made, now it's time for us to move on to heal our community and to make our community a great parish.  Where we can recruit companies, we can keep folks here; it's just a new day in Caddo Parish."  The Confederate monument was erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy  on  courthouse grounds where it has stood since 1906.  A new location for the monument has yet to be determined.

Chuck Smith brings more than 30 years' broadcast and media experience to Red River Radio. He began his career as a radio news reporter and transitioned to television journalism and newsmagazine production. Chuck studied mass communications at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and motion picture / television production at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has also taught writing for television at York Technical College in Rock Hill, South Carolina and video / film production at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport.