Commission on Public Art inventory review online comment submissions The public comments in this document were collected from August 15 to September 5. They are in response to a call from Mayor Greg Fischer, encouraging the public to add their voice to the review of public art that can be interpreted to honor bigotry, discrimination, racism and/or slavery. 40204: I am not opposed to removing the Castleman statue. I would miss having a horse in the neighborhood, however, so if it could be replaced by another rider, perhaps Oliver Lewis and Aristides, the first KY Derby winners. That would be cool. Any statue with Confederate imagery should be removed. Period. 40299: We should not have public murals and statues of leaders of the confederacy. The bottom line is that these men of the confederacy fought to keep hatred, bigotry and racism alive. I don't want our city to have statues honoring these men, because I know Louisville is an inclusive community dedicated to bringing different folks together. 40212: Remove all statues glorifying these traitors. I can’t imagine what a PoC feels about these abominations. 40243: Please leave history ALONE... 40208: A democracy should have monuments celebrating the oppressed and not the oppressors. We need to tear down any monuments celebrating the Confederacy. I also think you should add to this list nude portraits, paintings objectifying women, and paintings featuring people in poverty. I would recommend going through the library and removing all books before 1975 and blocking all websites that involve actual thinking. History has been written, to ignore it is unwise. Embrace the ability to learn from history and use those lessons to improve peoples’ lives today. 40215: I have to say that I've been on the fence about the issue of removing public art commemorating Confederates, white supremacists and slave owners for a long time now. It seems on the surface like an issue of censorship. But here's where I finally landed: the history itself is not being censored. What we are doing when we remove public art that honors those who fought to divide our country, is refusing to be complicit as a community in the rosy depiction of would-be slavers. These statues serve as a reminder to all of us that Louisville cares more about preserving the likeness of men who only valued some (white, male) people than it does about making our community open and welcoming to all people who live in and visit our beautiful city. Statues and monuments standing in public spaces are not the appropriate way to remember those who fought against the values of our community. Those pieces belong in museums, where they can be given proper context, and where people can choose to see them if they wish, rather than lurking around corner in the neighborhood where we live and play. 40204: I strongly oppose any monument that glorifies the Confederacy, Confederate Soldiers, their acts, actions, victories, and defeats. These items belong in museum, where they can be placed in appropriate historical context, not on our streets, sidewalks, parks, and public buildings. No amount of civic pride or action can undo the work of men who would conspire and fight to keep other humans in chains. We have better civic heroes to honor than these men, including but not limited to John B. Castleman. I support the removal of these monuments at any public cost. 40059: Wouldn't it be better to do this after everything kind of calms down? You seem to be stoking the fire. 40291: The statue of John Breckinridge Castleman should be removed, as should monuments to the Civil War in Cave Hill Cemetery. Castleman certainly did good things AFTER the war ended, but that doesn't negate the fact that he recruited, spied, and fought for the Confederacy in an attempt to continue the horrific institution of slavery. Monuments are for heroes, not for traitors who thought owning humans was right. 40204: Many of these statues are monuments to Jim Crow and an era of terror for marginalized communities. Those that are not are now associated with ongoing and continued terrorism and acts of white supremacy. It is time to remove these monuments to make it clear that public spaces are places where all are welcome and can and should feel safe. Please remove these. They honor oppression and racist ideals. 40205: Remove statues honoring those who furthered the cause of the confederacy. Place them in a memorial park as relics of an era we reject and do not wish to relive. Commission new works to replace them from artists of color. I suspect the Cherokee Triangle Association would be very excited to have a statue by local, renowned artist Ed Hamilton or the like. Honor the change we are capable of making as a society AND remember the past in a way that makes it clear it's not acceptable. It's not that hard to do the right thing here in a way that appeases most people. 40214: Leave the statues and if they are deemed offensive to some, then use the opportunity to develop context of history for the public. There are so many older adults who don't know history. They have just learned to have racist opinions. It's time to have the conversation, but it takes two sides to have a conversation and will only have value if both sides are willing to listen. This community has too little public art. Art has always been a vehicle for free expression. Perhaps if there are other artistic public pieces that honor a wider spectrum of our history such as women who have long been ignored in this genre, then perhaps we can find a way to learn and then a way to acceptance. 40217: Who we choose to memorialize and how matters — it is a public declaration of our community's values. We can't say we condemn the Confederacy and slavery yet justify honoring one of its prominent agents because he's not in uniform, because he then went on to be a wealthy landowner, because he contributed to the founding of our parks system (and the extent and value of that contribution has been disputed). Do we value Louisville's parks over the dignity and humanity of Louisville's black residents? Do we only abhor the glorification of the Confederacy when it's holding a sword, or flying from the back of a pickup truck, or shouting hate speech at a neo-Nazi rally? Or do we hold the wealthy, the polite, the bronzed to the same standards as the loud, the uncouth, and the unmistakable agents of hate? I believe many people did not know until recently, or perhaps just never thought deeply until recently, who Castleman was. It is a privilege to walk or drive by statues of prominent men every day and not think about whom they were and what they stood for. But now that we are all talking about it, what will we decide to do about it? 40204: Please remove John B Castleman. Monuments like these need to be in a museum. We are not "erasing" or "sanitizing" history like many have claimed. We just simply know better, now. We can be better. We can create a city in which all feel welcome and their voices heard. Most people outraged over these removals are white - What about the voices of color? We need to take ALL perspectives into consideration, and our dialogue & action needs to focus on justice. 40299: The Statue in Cherokee Park does not celebrate what he did in the Civil War. It celebrates what he did for this community. I would like to see this statue remain in the park. I hope my feelings on this matter will be considered. 40213: This is the moment where we choose a side, and it’s important we stand for American values. We must remove all monuments to the confederacy because they have no place in our future. They are relics of past traitors and their homes should museums. 40205: Castleman was sentenced to death for spying on the United States, attacked U.S. citizens and the U.S. military, was exiled to France, sold a small piece of his land at a marked up price to Louisville to build Tyler Park (as a result received a nice property value increase for the remainder of his land that he marketed as being near Tyler Park), and was responsible for segregating the parks after seeing African-Americans playing tennis in Cherokee Park, and those parks embarrassingly stayed segregated until 1954. During the Spanish-American war he and his militia did not engage in any actual combat and showed up in Puerto Rico as the war ended. His statue should go. 40206: The Castleman statue in the Cherokee triangle absolutely honors bigotry, racism, and slavery. No interpretation necessary. Castleman not only fought for the Confederacy, he also perpetuated racist ideas and practices throughout his whole life. Why would a traitor to our country, who also happens to be a racist bigot, deserve a statue? While removing a Confederate statue is only a small action in the scope of the social justice work that needs to be done in Louisville and throughout our country, it's a relatively easy one. Our communities of color have demanded that it come down, and all Louisvillians should stand in solidarity with them. Take it down. Today. 40213: This isn't complicated. You don't put white supremacists on pedestals, so removing public shrines to slavery's defenders is a necessary and worthy project.