Jackson Jambalaya

The mayor is being slick about it but he wants to get rid of it.

I'm not usually for moving monuments, but that one is a bit of a hazard for traffic.

That damn statue has been “speaking” for 118 years, delivering its one-sided message of defiance. Time for that one-sided message to be relegated to a place that is more appropriate for that message. I can think of no better place for that message than a cemetery where there are graves that exist as a testimony to that bygone era.

Go ahead and let one of those Rankin County residents put the statue in their back yard....case closed

Move the monument to the brand new larger traffic circle being built at the entrance to the Jackson International Medgar Wiley Evers Airport, facing North to welcome all new arrivals.

Move the statue, don't move it. The bigger obstacle that needs to be moved in Brandon is Butch Lee.

It is a stumbling block to investors in the town. Nobody wants to see a statue honoring a bunch of traitors to the country and slave holders. It looks stupid get it out of there.

Trust me, Butch knew EXACTLY how this conversation would go and how he would vote well before this board meeting.

Put it in a cemetery with a plaque telling what it once stood for and that we're moving on!

Commonly referred to by locals as the “second place trophy”

Just put it somewhere else - even somewhere highly visible. It's ridiculous to have it in the middle of a highway, though, causing traffic issues constantly because the road has to split down to 2 lanes.

"Bit of a hazard for traffic"?
It's been there since 1907.
Dedicated in 1908
Ford Model T production began in 1908.
Chances are it stood in the middle of a dirt road and was navigated by passing horse drawn buggies for many many years.
Now 118 years later you would think it might have some battle scars from errant traffic. I haven't seen any. Wasn't long (definitely while Butch was Mayor) that the curb and gutter and pavement was all redone in downtown Brandon around the memorial. It's a less than 100 foot bottleneck in a 2 lane road with a center turn lane. Big deal.
IF Butch really wanted to wait for a 7th alderman to be on board for the decision he could have voted NO and let it come up again with the 7th alderman .

And what was Lee's winning % this year?

Fire Butch Lee and the pro move 3.

MS Education System lets us down again. On the day they announced that History is no longer required to graduate, some yokels and rednecks on here prove its failure by calling those the monument honor “Traitors” and its message unimportant. MS education has produced the sheep the Government needs.

How is ole Butch gonna lobby the Legislature to let him move it?

I’m sure the museums in Jackson that are dedicated to Mississippi history would love that statue. So move it. Get it out of the middle of the road at least lmao

1:46 Yep, just like the former State of MS flag. Now that it's gone, things are SO much better here! /sarcasm

Today is day zero. I'm sure you're much like your purple-haired Belhaven friends in that you believe every bit of history before today should be forgotten.

So, 1:46, the statue REPELS OUTSIDERS, who would come and displace local investors? It's a pity that Lafayette, Lousiana could not have had such a repellent talisman, to ward-off all the chains which have marred the town, and stripped it of much of its unique character (Lafayette's my favorite place in the whole world - above even Positano, so I'm using it as an example). Brandon is not my personal cup of tea. But SOMETHING about the place, has been drawing people of substance, since long before Jackson became a place from which to flee. It doesn't need to change. Brandon doesn't need "investors".

By the way: since you're so big on protesting slavery in times past, are you against it, in the present day? I mean, do you boycott chocolate, since that industry is largely dependent upon child slaves?

And do you make snarky comments in discussions of Renaissance Italy? Do you advocate removal of the statues adorning buildings from the Italian Renaissance? You DO know, don't you, that much of it was built by Slavs (and others), purchased as SLAVES?

I'm a long time resident of Brandon, and it doesn't offend me if they move it to a place of respect with dignity. I can remember at least three different times when it has been hit by a car, and once by a large truck trying to squeeze by. Even the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway marker was moved when they widened Hwy 49 in Richland, and nobody was offended because they could have just dumped the marker.

Can anyone name a business who decided not to locate in Brandon because of this statute?

I want racists to own their racism, not hide it in a cemetery. Brandon should be required to keep the statue as is and maybe fly a nazi flag over the Sheriff’s Office so all visitors know the peril they face.

Personally I don't care at this point. But to advocate for its removal because its a traffic hazard is just dumb. The speed limit is 25, its a two lane road all the way thru town, and anyone who has hit it in the past was either speeding or drunk.

Agree. Not a Nazi flag but a KKK hood

Yo Brandon, take note:

History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from, and if it offends you, even better, because then you are less likely to repeat it. It's not yours to erase, modify, or destroy.

Redneck Brandon is going woke? Who knew?

This whole moving the monument thing wasn't an issue til the idiots allowed golf carts on the (less than 30 mph) streets of Brandon, so just raise the speed limit through downtown from 25 to 31 write a bunch of tickets for DUI and illegal golf cart usage that would be a physical threat to the memorial and be done with it Butch. Dang. How difficult is that?!

1:40pm
HA! love it!

Of course they have never done that. That doesn't help their narrative. Unfortunately we are stuck with them now...

I can say this about the Board of Aldermen in Brandon. Whenever there is an important vote and the aldermen themselves are split, it always comes down to one member not being present, and Butch casting the deciding vote. I have seen that move time and time again. They know how they are voting beforehand and if they can't agree on it, one "misses the meeting" and Butch votes the way he wants it to go. Not just specific to this matter, it's a play, and they know the outcome before it's voted on. It's rigged to be honest. That missing alderman wasn't a coincidence.

most confederates did NOT own slaves! They were mostly poor and didn’t even a good pair of shoes

I really thought that changing the state would bring people together. Hmmmm, I guess I was wrong. Maybe, moving this will?

Robert E? Zero again

If we are going to keep confederate memorials then we should also have memorials to Saddam Hussein, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, Adolf Hitler, and Julius & Ethel Rosenberg. So we are inclusive of all enemies and traitors.

I think it gives the town a little class. It has stood there over 100 years. Leave the statue and remove the sheriff. He sort of makes the statue more honorable. With a sheriff like that what harm is a statue doing? I look at the statue every time I go to Brandon and wish other cities had something like that. It has stood sturdy and straight through everything. It should be saved just for the artistic value. Brandon is tearing down statues and Jackson is having graffety sprayed all over the town. Will Brandon follow Jackson?

It’s more of a participation trophy than anything.

From the British perspective every monument in Washington DC is of a traitor and enemy. Historical context is important and judging past events by current societal mores is nonsense.

@1:40 - i tend to agree. Everyone that lives here knows the reputation of Brandon, but outsiders need a warning. Move along quick or there will be trouble.

My 2 cents.....this is bullcrap. Leave it alone. Aldermen, when you meet, actually address issues facing your areas.

From my take it looks like Butch was surprised when the attorney said he had to vote. If so, might get a new city attorney in short order.

I agree with the traffic comments. Downtown is awful but not due to the monument!

It needs to be moved so the highway can be widened. Traffic is horrible.

To what "we" do you refer, 3:58? The only "we" who matter, regarding the statue, are The People of Brandon. It is a very separate place, without ideological ties to Communism, or to the "great world religions" which produced Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Outsiders should have no say.

5:28. The only traffic relief would require killing the street parking from College Street to the monument.

So what problem does the statue cause in its current location? What problem would be solved by moving it? If government isn't solving a problem, leave it alone. And leave us alone while you're at it.

If they move the statue, then I hope they 4-lane Hwy 80/Government St from College St to Louis Wilson Dr.

Move it to the center of Hwy 25 at the Pearl River. It will get a lot more appreciation there.

Brandon Mayor Butch Lee probably just committed political suicide.

When the City Attorney informed him that he would have to cast the deciding vote ... his shocked expression was priceless.

Ole' Butch had not expected such a situation.

You can’t widen highway 80 without knocking down every “historic” building in downtown Brandon. Brandon has gone woke

It sits on MDOT property - in the middle of a Mississippi Highway! Won't the city of Brandon have to get permission to relocate it?

Those monuments were put in sight for several reasons. One is to honor the fallen and for it to be kept within eyeshot so that remembrance of what happened stays within some range of current memory. As humans, per usual, we’re getting all wrong again. We want to remove all of these reminders because they’re offensive. “We should get rid of them because they serve no purpose other than to offend.”. Well no shit. As one documentary said, “We are the United States of Amnesia”. We are the stupidest and most coddled bunch of fucking morons on the planet.

We need to be offended at the right things and not the silly shit we are currently. We are failing as humans and humanitarians.

It could be left there so that we can point to it and say “Let’s not do again what led to this asshole becoming famous, rather, let’s see it and forge ahead with history to correct our missteps.”

But oh, fuck no. We aren’t strong enough to remember and we’re too stupid not to fail again. We deserve it too.

I've lived in Brandon my entire life and here is what the statue means to me: The people in the South were told by the Union what they could and could not do. Being strong willed and independent US citizens, they promptly told the Union to f--k o-f. Their desire to live unimpeded was intolerable to the Union and a war ensued. The South was crushed by the Union and still to this day is being perpetually punished. While their goals were not to be admired, their resolve to fight a tyrannical government is to be respected. HMMMMM kinds sounds like the original colonists and the King of England.

Of course ol' Butch waits until after the election to complete this politically risky gambit.

I think it had been legally determined that the City of Brandon does no own the statue or the property it sits on. An earlier attempt at removing it found this information, if I’m remembering correctly. I believe The Daughters of The Confederacy own this. Good, bad or ugly, it’s a part of the history of Brandon, Mississippi.

And the statue is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Traitors? Someone didn’t learn U.S. history nor learned what those Yankees really thought about slavery. I also never understood how or why people get scared of or offended by statues, names, or flags seems weird and simple minded to me. I’m just glad I’m not one of those weak minded simpletons.

Thank you, 2:36, for educating some of the more "woke" on this thread.

The reality is Brandon Mayor Butch Lee and the city of Brandon can't do anything about the monument even if they wanted to.

Such decisions must start with the Rankin County Board of Supervisors.
(And that group has been dealing with more serious issues than a damn statue for the last few years).

I'm sure that would be a two or three year delay. And even if the BOS agreed,
the Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History would become involved with another two or three year "study".

So ... that's longer than Butch's next election cycle.

I doubt Butch will have that 63 vote majority next election.

Perhaps it was put there to commemorate the sentiment shared by Lord Acton in his letter to Robert E. Lee: “Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.”

For the 100th time the removal of the statute would not allow for widening of the street. There are buildings on both sides of the street west of the statute.
Should the Old capitol be destroyed? Antebellum homes in Natchez? The Vicksburg National park? I think viewing it as a reminder to never let what happened happen again.

These monuments that appeared (most still do) are not favorable testaments to slavery. They are memorials to the men and boys who gave their lives in battle.

As has been said, history doesn't for me to like or dislike. If statues of one sort are destroyed or relegated to unseen places, why not raze Medgar's house?

Confederate men who fought in this war did not do so to preserve slavery. Lincoln, himself, said he had no issue with slavery where it existed. Our boys and men fought to repel the onslaught of yankees.

Amazing that some would say forget about slavery, I am not responsible for the sins of my ancestors. But let’s place this monument in the center of town to honor their ancestors who fought to preserve slavery ,

Move it to the ole Miss campus in honor of the Ole Miss unit, the Mississippi blues who suffered a 100% casualty rate fighting to protect state rights.

Why weren't statues made of slaves but made only of Confederate soldiers?

All these big city liberal fat cats from Austin, Nashville, Birmingham, NY, California foreigners in the Middle East, China buying up land and single family homes in Rankin County which sits next to always hemorrhaging Jackson. These boards and politicians will bend the knee to their $$$ and politics.

This is about traffic. Downtown Brandon has become nightmare during rush hour with the statue literally sitting right in the middle of Hwy 80. There is no good way to alleviate the traffic issue without moving the statue.

A lot of ignorant southerners here. I suggest you learn the real history of the civil war. It is nothing to celebrate. I suggest you start with reading books about Judah P. Benjamin and the Rothschild loans to the confederacy. And the pressure the same Rothschild bank put on Lincoln to accept a European Central Bank. If you can connect the dots then the Confederacy was a very early “color revolution” that was a shell game to force a president’s hand. And when he refused to sign up for a European Central Bank , he was assasinated. Like every other assasinated leader who declines to server them. Our military is a mercenary army. We have demonized and killed or attempted to kill, every leader without a Rothschild central bank. Bashar Al Assad was just the latest.

5:18, That was the southern narrative from the end of reconstruction until around 1990. Nobody blames you for parroting what you were taught in school. But it’s hogwash. Those statues went up at the same time Jim Crow laws were enacted. Not a coincidence.

You left out Pawns in the Game or any book by Carr, any book written by Eustace Mullins, Proofs of a Conspiracy, and Shadows of Power by Perloff.

Absent any political or historical context, it's just an eyesore in the middle of the road. Move it. Luddites have short attention spans, as in the case of the statue formerly in the Circle at Ole Miss.

Reviewing the comments, I see three broad categories:

1. those who think all white people are racists

2. Those who have been indoctrinated with some version of political messaging, and are simply following their programming

3. Those who actually live in the area, most of whom seem to want the statute moved for practical reasons

My conclusion: The statute doesn't mean much to the people who actually have to live with it.

9:03
Wrong , if you keep up with politics around Rankin you would know Butch went the BOS and asked them to give him the statue. That is an irrefutable fact, just ask a supervisor. It is very clear that he cut a deal with the Black community to get the votes in the election and now it’s trying to make a Campaign promise come through. Although I don’t think it went the way he wanted it to go just watch the video with his stare down with Mark Baker when he gets called out. Also notice how BaBa hauls ass after the meeting. There’s your deal right there!
Again, absolutely nothing to do with traffic. It was all politics and a poorly played hand at that.

Let's see if Butch packs the stones to put the matter to an advisory vote of the people Brandon. My bet is he doesn't.