A victory for local control: Memphis city leaders found a way to rid their city of two racist monuments, over the objection of the State Legislature.
"The city of Memphis sold two public parks containing Confederate monuments to a nonprofit Wednesday in a massive, months-in-the-planning operation to take the statues down overnight," reports Ryan Poe.
"The City Council unanimously approved the sale of Health Science Park, home of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, and its easement on Fourth Bluff Park, home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, for $1,000 each to Memphis Greenspace Inc. Fourth Bluff, or Memphis Park, is owned by a group called The Overton Heirs," adds Poe.
Poe offers additional details of the deal that enabled the move, as well as a dispatch from the scene that night statues were removed, where a "chant of "the people united will never be defeated" spread through the crowd," watching the statues come down.
German Lopez picked up the news of the statues' demise for Vox, noting that the "mostly white" State Legislature fought to protect the statues while the "mostly black" city found a way to bring them down.
The state is expected to file a lawsuit to reverse the sale of the parks.
Read the full story: Memphis removes Confederate statues from Downtown parks
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