we start at 6:00 I believe everybody is ready.

So we'll just go right ahead.

Thank you for joining us tonight

elements of our protocol are re

teen and some of it May be a

bit arcane or confusing for you. We'll try to get to what

interests everyone here tonight early.

First we will have a roll call

and that's given by our council clerk.

Madam Clerk. Ms. Bledsoe.

>> yes ma'am. >> Mr. Degreed brown. >> here.

>>Mr. James brown. >> here.

>> Miss Evans. >> here. >> Mr. Farmer. >> here.

>> Mr. Gibbs. >> here.

>> Ms. Henson. >> here.

Vice mayor kay. >> here.

Ms. Mossoti. >> here.

>> Miss Plomin. >> here.

>> Ms. Scutchfield. >> here. >> Mr. Smith.

>> here. >> Mr. Stinnett.

>> here.

>> thank you, Madam Clerk. Next on the docket is the in

vocation and the invocation is

being offered by the reverend doctor C.B. Acheins.

Pastor of first baptist church

braktown here in lexington.

Dr. Acheins. >> let us pray.

Eternal God before we ask you for anything, we want to thank

you for everything. We do not take for granted that

we live in lexington, kentucky,

nor are we unmindful of the door s you have already opened

and the barriers you have broken down to make this a highly

desirable place for us to live, work, run our businesses and

raise our families.

We invoke your presence in this meeting tonight asking that you

guide hearts, minds and tongues

that all we say and do will be respectful of others and pleas

ing to you. Embolden our mayor and council,

remind them that leadership is

never easy and there is never a wrong time to do what is right.

Do not allow our courage tonight

to come from cameras rolling or presses printing.

But fill us with compassion that

calls us to commitment and in

inculcate us with empathy that propels us to engagement.

Bring out of the shadows persons from every strata of our community.

Do not allow leaders of any

segment to remain anonymous and

innocuous but replace with features and faces.

We know them. They're our mothers and fathers,

sons and daughters, our sisters

and brothers, our family and our friends.

Make us one, not just in words but in deeds.

Let your justice roll down as waters and your righteousness as

a mighty stream. Knowing you to be God of all

nations known by many names,

none of which either limit or lessen the essence of who you

are, while respecting the convictions of others, I yet

remain true to my own by sealing this prayer in the name of jesus

, amen.

>> thank you reverend.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

Hearing none I'll ask for a vote all those in favor please say aye.

Opposed no.

Motion carries.

I'll now ask recognize council member gibbs to make a motion to

allow public comment on resolution 41 which is related

to the statues. Council member gibbs. >> I move to suspend the rules

to allow for public comment to

be taken on resolution 41 so

moved. Before we begin public comment,

we have a number of you signed on for public comment, I have a

comment and then I'll ask our

chief of police mark barnard to

give us an update on security

issues in the city in the days

since the tragedy at charlottesville, cities across

the country have recognized the need to stand up and tell the

truth and do the right thing. As our country is being ripped

apart and cities are on the

front lines, we must be adults today as leaders we must stand

up and tell the truth.

Enough is enough.

Collective madness must stop. People are dying.

It must stop.

Our actions on tuesday, this

council, and our actions tonight , will affirm that we

stand on the side of truth, real

truth in telling the real story.

That we are true to core american values, fairness and justice and freedom and liberty.

We don't choose the time to

stand up and speak out. The time chooses us.

There is no perfect time to stand up for what's right.

It's required all of time.

Although this action May seem

sudden into some, our city has been working on this for two

years now, talking to citizens, examining the facts, weighing

different points of view. By relocating these statues are,

we are not destroying, hiding or sanitizing history.

We are honoring and learning our history through this relocation.

It is, yes, long overdue, but we

are on the path to do it and I

want to commend the council for its leadership and so many

citizens in this room tonight confronting our history is often

difficult and inconvenient and uncomfortable.

We all know in many ways this war is unfinished.

It did not put an end to the

vicious and violent reach of racism. An important step we can take

toward finishing this war means

facing up to our history. When we have an honest account

ing of it, it freezes.

That's what we are doing no, we don't know every detail for

certain tonight we must work out

a proper location, but I'm confident that proper location

will emerge. I have trust.

I trust our community. And life is often that way.

We must trust and have faith

before we have fact.

Tonight we do know this.

The statues must go from

cheapside where they now honor

men who fought to preserve slavery on the sacred ground

where slaves, men, women and even children were once sold

into slavery.

There is no context or balance surrounding these statues today,

there is no explanation that

both men fought to preserve slavery.

On tuesday, marilyn dishman came

here to the council, and with

preciously carved words, she

brought this picture into sharp focus.

She said, let's pretend you are

the victim of an abuser, would

you like for the abuser to be honored?

Marilyn wondered why we were honoring these men instead of

the union people who stood up for the rights of this country

and who stood up for the rights of my ancestors.

She's right. It's one thing to have differing

opinions.

We can, however, share no common

ground with any opinion that

sets truth and falsehood upon an

even playing field.

And that's what we have today at cheapside. The resolution before our

council tonight is the

resolution that earned your unanimous support on tuesday to

place on tonight's docket.

Our next step will be to ask the

military heritage commission.

We need its consent, it's

approval to move the statues. One update as we move forward

tonight.

We have been contacted by a

donor who is willing to move the

statues at no expense to the taxpayers.

[Applause] i'll come back to council rules

in just a minute. Let me say this though in closing.

Lexington is taking

responsibility to do the right thing. Always remembering that the

human spirit triumphs during times of adversity.

It does not fail us. Now as we get started tonight, I

mention that we want to hear

from our chief of police, mark barnard who will update us on

security issues.

He is going to... The chief is going to give a statement to us

tonight thank you, chief. >> thank you.

Mayor, vice mayor, council members. This is a passionate issue, as

you can obviously tell.

I haven't seen the chambers pack ed so much. We have received a lot of

questions about our planning, organizing, the groups that we

are working with in coordination of our efforts.

We received this information from charlottesville.

I've spoken directly to charlottesville about the incident that happened there.

I talked to their incident commander about their

preparations what went well, what went bad.

What advice they would have if something like that happened in lexington.

Unfortunately we have information through social media

and other outlets that that May come here.

We have no permit. We have no one that has said

this is was we are doing or com ing here.

We have seen it on social media and other places.

That has not stopped us from planning and preparing.

That has not stopped us as any

other incident that would occur

nationally or around us regional

ly that we have not upped our patrols.

The patrol staffing has been increased each night every night

and every sector.

Downtown patrols around the businesses and downtown areas

have been increased, 24 hours, seven days a week.

We've increased with our neighborhood resource officers

information in getting intelligence coming into our unit.

We are currently working with our joint terrorism task force,

the fbi, the secret service, the A.T.F., the kentucky fusion

center.

I have spoken to kentucky state

police and chief conrad in louisville.

All have donated resources if

needed and personnel.

We view this as not as aa lexington issue but a statewide

issue for law enforcement because if groups come in and

cause issues like this, they can

go anywhere in the state and we know as law enforcement partners

we have to help each other. They have vowed to be here,

stand side by side with us and ensure the most peaceful protest

that we can have. We have plans in place.

I can't go into all the plans operational plans, we have a

system in place. We've trained for this.

We've done it through the years. the past three years you all

have seen probably more protests , vigils and

demonstrations downtown than in my career. These officers have been through

it, they have been disciplined. They get compliments at most of

those demonstrations when weem leave.  -- when people leave.

We will be prepared and we will be ready and we will do the best

that those officers and our

agency can provide for the

safety of everyone at those vigils.

Now we know this is a humanistic thing, right?

You can't count for every variable because of what happens

but we are very fluid in our operational plan to respond to

those. I caution everyone though

because I've had 50 text message s today are I heard this

on the internet, I heard this on

social media or this somewhere else. It's like I tell everybody, not

everything on social media is true.

So we have to be cautious with it.

But if we hear it, we report it and it goes all the way through

the intelligence, not only through us but through secret

service, the fbi, joint terrorism task force, the state

police in louisville intelligence as well as ours.

We monitor and track all that. Because that's the expectation

y'all have for us looking at mub safety.

We have been prepared, we have talked to the businesses

downtown, talked to counter protestors and other people who want to come down.

Our advice, people ask us all

the time, what would you like us

to do, chief if I could git one bit of advice to everybody,

don't give any time to people that promote hate.

Go somewhere else and talk about peace. Don't show up downtown.

That's what they want. They want a confrontation.

And that's not lexington.

That's not our community.

Go somewhere else and talk about peace or how we can help other

people not how we can hurt people.

So that's the advice we have been giving out as an agency.

We have talked to our faith bas ed community and they have

been very supportive. We have been in dmungs with a

lot of people. We will continue that.

I'll get the information if we get a permit filed or request

for it and someone comes down

and requests paperwork, y'all will be the first we contact.

We do not have that as of now. We are waiting for it.

We hear it but we don't have it.

So that's about all I have mayor

>> you inspire us. You routinely say that lexington

is a caring, giving com passionate but we are also

disciplined and prepared. Thank you very much.

As we move into public comment,

I want to say to you all, I have

the unpopular role of sometimes being the time keeper.

That means the council rules

provide for public comment and offers three minutes to anyone

who signed up for public comment

after you go through the three minutes, then I maybe have to

wave my hand and come over the

microphone and encourage an wear

ness that -- an awareness that someone has exceeded the

three minutes. Sometimes someone will say

something that's very compelling and you want to stand up and

clap. Well our council rules don't

allow that either.

So as much as you May feel

really compelled to clap and get excited and endorse whatever

pointed of view is being offered , please help me and

don't do that. All right? Thank you very much.

Now I'm going to begin by call ing the names of those who

have signed on and I'm going to

begin with calling on nancy jo kemper.

Reverend nancy jo kemper. You have been here before and

you know about that three minute rule.

>> I'm hurrying.

Good evening. Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the council and mayor, it's good to

be here.

Just a quick message.

I was born in this city 75 years ago.

My father and my mother were

born as the statue of john hunt

morgan was being erected.

I must have walked from wolf whiles to purcells and then

crossing the street just by the

statue hundreds of times to walk

the other side of main street to

shop as a child and as a young person.

My mother would often point to the statue of john hunt morgan

and tell me the stories of my

great grandfather who was a cap

captain in morgan's calvary, in his unit.

He was shot, wounded and captur ed, sent to union prison

and later exchanged and sent home.

But as I grew older, I began to

be aware that he was no hero;

that that man was a terrorist.

He destroyed people's livelihood s and their farms and

stole their livestock and

destroyed many, many people.

I began to realize over the

years that the time had come for

those statues to be removed.

The time has come in a number of

occasions from the civil rights demonstrations in the 60s in

this city, from the death of

martin luther king, on and on and on.

We must not go longer.

Now is the time and right is

right and this is a moment for

us to witness to the greatest of

our ideals as americans and as

people of good will. Thank you.

>> thank you. Mr. Trent garrison and what

I'm going to do so we'll be as efficient as we can with this,

I'm going to call several people

's names and there are

others outside the council chambers.

There is a three second lapse. I'm going to give them time to

move into the chambers if they're outside the chambers.

I'm going to call trent garrison

, chris woolen, allison duval, dawson smith, emily

mosely and daniel pack, okay. Now if those folks will come up

and just line up behind trent, then we will be able to move

right along. Treatment. Thank you very much. >> thank you.

Before I get started I would like to commend the lexington

police department.

They've been very professional with us in the past so I really

appreciate that. Good evening.

I'm trent garrison. I'm back again.

I was here tuesday.

I was here representing together

bluegrass since then we convened

an emergency meeting with 11 of our allied groups in the

lexington area at which the

following statement was approved and if the following groups I

mention want to raise their

hands as I go down the list,

that would be great.

On behalf of indivisible bluegrass, together we will

bluegrass, naacp of lexington,

the people's campaign, our revolution central kentucky, the

contact group, kentucky now,

national organization of women, lexington fairness and our local

planned parenthood which

together represents over 10,000

kentuckians in this area and alongside fayette county

democratic party and the kentucky democratic party our

coalition endorses the removal of the breckenridge and morgan

statues from their current public space to a more

appropriate area. We feel that the removal of

these statues is essential in making lexington a more

inclusive and welcoming city.

In short, we support the take back cheapside campaign.

So I want to thank you for your

time and I want to thank

specifically the aforementioned

groups whether new or seasoned for their very important work

that has been done recently. As we are learning when we work

together, we can make a huge difference. Thank you very much.

>> thank you, trent. >> I'm chris woolery.

I live on mer riddian in the

11th district and I'm saddened and ashamed I didn't know about

these statues even though I've

lived in lexington for 34 out of

my 46 years.

I never paid them any attention.

I met lebron through the central

kentucky chapter take back

cheapside campaign and, you know

, I want to thank him for

bringing this issue to our attention and I want to speak to

the argument that we are trying to sanitize our history.

I didn't learn this history in school and I feel like if y'all

want to protect our history, then you should be teaching it

to us in junior high and high school. So we will know the history of

lexington and that we can stand

up against the things that we disagree with.

And so I would like to thank you all for doing the right thing on

tuesday and I'd like to ask you

to remove these statues, to vote

to remove those statues today and I just thank you for the

opportunity to speak and I hope

that I can be proud of lexington

as the situation is resolved. >> thank you, chris.

Allison duval.

By the way, I do want to say one thing allison before you speak.

That if you wish to... If you've

signed on and someone has spoken to the issue that you are

speaking to and you wish to simply concur with what they

have to say, that's okay, too. All right.

Allison, go right ahead. >> members of the city council

and mayor, I'm in council district 1.

I live in the east end and I concur with the previous speaker

I was not taught the history of

the founding myth of our country that we were founded on a myth

of angelo sax onexceptionallism and white supremacy. -

if we are going to be truthful about our history, we have to

not only take down the statues and put them in a space that is

not in the public square, a space where others can come and

learn about the founding myths

of our country which dehumanized people of color, which enslaved

them and which has continued to be maintained by our elected

leaders.

I wanted to read briefly from a

piece written by the reverend

Dr. Kelly brown douglas many americans horrified exclaim this

is not america but the truth we

need to know to actually root out white supremacy is that this

is integral to america and has been from the very beginning.

When the american and pilgrim

forebearers believed themselves

descendant of an ancient angelo

saxon people with a love of freedom.

I truncate here but they crossed the ocean and founded a country

based on those values. In order to safeguard this

vision, a pervasive culture of

whiteness was born. why?

Because simply put not everybody

that looks like an angelo saxon

in the united states is actually

angelo saxon, the perpetual vex ing problem is that it has

been an immigrant nation with migrants even from europe.

And just to save time and allow

others to speak, I'll conclude that as a white person I've

benefited from the white

privilege bestowed upon me that has dehumanized others that

don't look like me.

I'm in support of removing the

statues and moved to not a public park so all members of

our community can feel safe and welcome in public places.

>> thank you, allison. Dawson smith.

And then emily all right.

And let me, dawson, let me call some other folks up.

Daniel pack, danny woolems, gene , bryan davis and andrew

russell english. >> the outcome today of this

particular issue is not only a reflection of our city's ability

and willingness to absorb and extend sympathy and empathy but

a testament to the integrity of our stance and appropriately

representing our history. It is clear that opposition

exists from the tragic events in charlottesville and the reaction

s from some of our own

citizens to mayor gray's announcement to removing them.

To that myself and many others

say it is not only obvious that figures, not only disrespectful

in the context of their erection and the land in which they re

side, they conjure and avail

the despicable hate and intolerance of our population.

it is pivotal. Allow me to explain.

America though not exclusively

has dropped the ball. Now, usually when dropped the

reaction is that it rises again,

back to the wielder's hand and ultimate control. With this particular issue not

only is it important to grasp tightly but realize the lack

thereof at a time when gravity is so powerful May result in the

ball not returning. It is somewhat sad to mention

reputation as a factor when what

is truly at the center of this is ethics.

It is buy say system it is intrinsically connected.

It is one of the most remarkable places in the state of kentucky.

I press and ask dearly for the

hearts and souls of those who suffered, still suffer and are

deeply and rightfully moved and passion passionate of their

removal.

Please do not Miss This precious opportunity for progress,

justice and leadership.

For those that deceptively and

rebuttal with the virtue of

pride, whether southern, confederate or america, it is

pride that comes before the fall

C.A.T.

>> empli. >> emily.

>> emily mosely and I live in the first district.

I feel very strongly that these statues should be moved out of

cheapside.

I moved to lexington in 2010 and

I find it to be a very welcoming

and inclusive and generous city.

When I realized the statues in

cheapside were of confederate soldiers it gave me pause,

especially after learning the meaning of the word cheapside%

and what had happened there. I understand that people fear

change and that they're scared of erasing history.

But these statues were erected for the sole purpose of distort

ing history. It was a move to preserve the

lost cause of the confederacy which has helped preserve and

encourage white supremacy. These statues were placed in

cheapside to intimidate black americans to remind them of

where they came from and who was in charge.

It is time to remove these

statues from our most public gathering area. I believe that these statues

have no place on public lands and that they would best be

served to be located in a museum

where their history can be fully explained.

I think we can all agree that the renovation of the courthouse

looks amazing and I think it would be a real shame to have

that beauty tarnished by these statues. Debron thomas has said the right

time to do the right thing is

always right now. Right now is our time and your

time to do the right thing. This is not what we stand for.

This is not who we are as a city

of lexington and the wrongs and failings of the past do not need

to continue to define who we are

and by removing these statues,

we can move forward as a more

united and just lexington. Thank you.

>> thank you, emily.

Mr. Pack. >> thank you, Mr. Mayor. good evening everyone.

My name is daniel pack and I live on west sixth street.

I'm a proud resident of council district 1.

And I just want to say that we've heard numerous arguments

and pleas on tuesday night as well as tonight and we are going

hear more for in favor of remove

is these statues from cheapside

to a more appropriate location. These are good arguments.

We've also heard from the chief

and probably before that neo- nazis and white supremacists

are planning to come to lexington to protest moving the

statues. I imagine there are some members

of our community and maybe some members of this council that are

frightened by that prospect. Why would we do something that

essentially invites terrorists to our downtown?

Why would we risk the violence even deaths of innocent people

like we saw in charlottesville virginia and other cities?

Because we are proud kentuckians

and we are americans.

We don't give into terrorists.

We don't bow to hate.

We don't make decisions based on fear. We choose what is right because

it is right not because it is easy.

So fear of nazis is part of the equation for you, if you are at

all considering the potential of white supremacists being here in

lexington as part of your decision making process, I urge

you to put that aside and choose what is right for our entire

community and we all know that moving the statues is what is

right. the last thing I need to say is

that I recognize the privilege that allows me to make this

statement so easily. As a white straight man I'm not

a target of their hate. So we, who are privileged must

commit to stand alongside those

who are targeted, people of color, our lgbt brothers and

sisters, immigrants, people of jewish descent, the differently

abled and women. We must commit to stand

alongside them and all stand

together against hate and not surrender to it.

Thank you.

>> thank you.

Let me call a few more folks.

Brak marquette herb miller,

jessica mikter.

Richard francis, phil mackson

and lillion breslin. >> thank you council members for

your service to our city and time this evening.

Thank you to the members of the fayette county police department , the sheriff's office

and the other individuals protecting us this evening.

My name is danny and I live in district 4 well represented by

council member lamb.

I grew up gay in a small conservative city near lexington

every day I was reminded in some way in which my presence wasn't

welcome or how I was a lesser person than the citizens around me.

I loved my city but I was

relieved when I moved to lexington. Nine years now I have enjoyed

the peace of mind from the protections of a fairness

ordinance and more welcoming community and it has meant the

world to me. I ruminate on that when I think

about the way my black electrics tonians feel about see

ing these markers every day.

If they want to dance at sky bar

, they pass breckenridge, if they want to enjoy the lexington

farmer's market, they're

reminded that thary isn't named cheapside because the local farm

ers offer the best prices

and every day they face job discrimination, housing

discrimination and biases at

most of us slug off and I go more.

Even in my lgbt communities, black americans face lower

income, lower employment rates

and more likely to be attacked than their white counterparts.

When my hometown decided not to vote in the fairness ordinance,

it rang clear to me how much the city council valued me and want

ed me back.

Such a symbolic move would have

spoken to my community that my home city cared about all of its

citizens. You will have a very important

vote tonight and I ask that you please consider what your vote

would say to the black lexington

ians that call this

city home.

>> I live on yorktown road. I would like to thank you all

for giving me the opportunity to

be here and especially for allow ing this motion to come to

a vote.

I urge you to vote tonight to

move the statues away from cheapside, especially if you get

or have been get getting calls

that are full of anger and hate

because that's what it's really about.

it's not about remembering history. Because if that were the case,

we would have statues of U.S.

Grant, we would have a statue of thomas hunt morgan.

We would have statues of people

other than that one period of time.

It's appropriate now to move

these statues to a different location.

But the reason that we need to

do this is the same as the reason that so many of us desire

to have them moved.

They're yourfications of an era of white supremacy and the men

who sought to maintain that caft system.

America does not believe in a caste system and we should not

glorify people who act to commit acts of war against our country

for the express purpose of

continued slavery.

Put these statues in a cemetery

to honor the dead or in a museum

to be in context with those of union officers.

But don't leave them adjacent to

a building that is supposed to

be the local embodiment of

liberty and justice for all. The men shown on these statues

did not stand for those values.

They are a constant reminder of slavery and white supremacy and

their presence, especially after significant public debate would

be a statement that the values

the statues represent are of

higher priority than liberty and

justice for all. Some would argue that these men

are no different than washington

or jefferson but that's not true their only claim to fame is

their role as traitors to the

united states and it's time we

stopped treating, as here owes, people who were willing to

commit treason against our country. Thank you for the opportunity to

speak.

>> thank you, jean.

Brian davis.

Andrew english. Next is herb miller.

Did I Miss Somebody? Is andrew here?

I thought you were... Go right ahead. >> confusing.

Part 69 last name. I'm a constituent of council

member brown first district.

Just a few thoughts.

I have a two-year-old son.

When I speak or act I send him a

message about what I align

myself with and what I believe is right.

If I say good morning to our

neighbors every day, heal follow

suit, and he does.

If I'm kind to Miss Mother, I hope he will be more likely to

treat his friends and partners

with kindness.

Intentional or not, my behaviors

are a projection that my son

watches intently, learning about my evolving efforts toward a

best possible community.

The work of this council is usually more subtle and complex

than the work of setting an example of integrity and truth

fulness for a child. In the instance of this

resolution, however, I feel

there is very little difference. With the eyes of the

commonwealth and the nation

fixed on our city, we can't

afford to pretend that these statues are simply hometown

residents remembered for historical reasons. We must reckon with the fact

that these statues are also symbols.

Symbols that continue to project on to our city the system these

men aligned themselves with; one

that is defined by treasonness

rebellion waged to preserve a

prejudice system on racial superiority. That idea I think we can all

agree is inhuman, evil and false

I would like to watch, along

with my young son, as you vote unanimously to move these statue

s today.

I can't imagine one good reason why you would want to set a

different example for your children.

>> thank you, andrew.

Herb miller. >> mayor, members of the council

, mayor, before I begin,

I want to say this is the first time in my professional career

that I'm not up here

representing someone else.

As it is said, they are symbols.

They were prominently placed as

symbols and remain as symbols.

They're a reminder of the ideals

of these particular men who

defended the ideals who they

defended, illegal economic social system where human beings

were bought, sold and inherited just like furniture.

So to me this is much bigger than how we remember these

individuals themselves. It's how we remember the ideals

they represented being in the town square implies an approval

or at least a lack of condemnation of the ideals

behind them.

I've heard it said relocating

these statues is a sanitizing of history but leaving them in the

place of public honor is

sanitizing history, perpetuates a myth that some people want to

hold on to. I get it.

I was raised to value my southern heritage and I do.

When it comes to manners and friendliness, sense of family

and a way of life. Monuments such as these are not

for reconciliation.

They communicate a message of separation, aristocracy,

superiority and division and these statues should be relocat

ed to a respectful place

of learning and reflection where the context of history can be

included. In summary, the values represent

ed by these symbols are

not what we want to communicate to people who want to start

businesses here or visit us here

or raise a family here let's show that lexington can be I

welcoming community we know it can be.

Keep the courage to stay the

course.

Whoever is willing to come up.

>> I think it's jessica.

I have terrible hand writing.

>> jessica, of course. >> I'm jessica and I would like

to choose to give my time to de

bron thomas. Firgs off I would like to say to

all of the people sitting here that have I spent many

conversations with, thank you

for lending your ears, thank you

for listening and thank you for

just in general being supportive

the last day and a half have been really stressful.

I have had threats to my life

and I have not gotten very much sleep.

I have been in transport constantly throughout the city

and I will be spending a lot of time couch surfing.

But I come here to you today to

ask that you unanimously vote

today to remove the statues from cheapside.

A lot of time is spent on the

statues and not on cheapside the space itself.

The stories of folks like will lockette who was hanged in 1929

at cheapside for a crime he didn't commit.

Henry tannedy, an african-american man who laid

the bricks in which the courthouse there that is there

currently sits.

So I ask of you again to please

listen to the voices of the people, the eyes of the country

are on lexington and I think

that we have an opportunity to

show to the rest of the world that we, as a community, will

not stand up against the institution of white supremacy

and we will not stand to the ugliness that is this hatred

that May or May not be coming to our town.

In this moment we must stand together and I vow to each and

every one of you that if you

unanimously vote today, I will

do everything that I can to

ensure that we continue to

spread a message of peace, love and prosperity because that's

the lexington that I know and

love my great, great grandfather

was a man named abraham jones who was born into slavery.

Every time I step into cheapside , I think of the

atrocities that he had to face

every day.

he ended up buying a farm in mount peelier kentucky that stay

ed in my family's name for over 100 years.

Knowing that that a man of his

stature, born into slavery, not

well educated, could buy land

and do things that at the time could seem amazing, things that

other people didn't even think

were possible, so in the same

sense, we have the same moment and opportunity to do the same,

to do something that 130 years

ago I highly doubt anyone would think we would be having this conversation.

So we do this for the voices of

the people who in 1887 could not speak, who in 1911 were barred

from speaking.

We do this for all of lexington.

And we do this to show the

entire country that we stand together as one.

So I end with one of my favorite

quotes, not sure if you all are

familiar with fred hampton. I said this the other night.

Fred hampton was a dhunt organizer in chicago, a member

of the illinois chapter of the

black panther party.

He was the original founder of

the rainbow coalition and said

this. We do not fight fire with fire.

We fight fire with water. We do not fight racism with rac

ism.

We fight racism with solidarity.

So today I ask each and every

one of you in solidarity, please stand together with the rest of

this city so we can take the next steps into moving these

statues from cheapside.

Thank you very much. >> if we had our priorities

straight we would be getting out the nativity scenes, get the

dust off of them, get the 10

commandments back out and, you

know, things that might offend a

minority of people so everybody the majority accepts the fact

that God probably has a good

sense of humor on things so off

they go in the shed.

I digress if we had our priorities straight that would

be what we are discussing but

since we are here, as a native lexingtonian, growing up here

and being a history major at U.K. And working at a couple of

the museums here in central

kentucky and being the assistant curator of historic properties

for a time, if your parents or grandparents or their parents

were here, there wouldn't be all

this milling around of explain

ing why lexington has

statues over here to its local heroes.

The men excelled at what they did. They're internationally known

and they're studied to this day because of the way they conduct

ed themselves during the war and there isn't time in

three minutes to go into how general breckenridge saved the

lives of all the black troops

that he could over at virginia

in October of '64. Etc., et cetera.

All he is is a confederate so he deserves all of our condemnation

and that's all he was. Well, the war wasn't fought just

about slavery by a long shot in case you don't hear that

anywhere else, okay? Anyway why are they over there

on the lawn?

Because lexingtonians wanted them there and if you had gone

through the community during the

war and seen the freshly turned dirt in the cemeteries and all

the displaced people with no

possessions or food living off the charity of anybody they

could find in the community and there was federal armed troops

at every bridge and ferry, the

shakers, the pass visits, incidentally were the first

people to accept blacks on an equal basis in the community,

the federal government sunk all their ships to the bottom of the kentucky river because they

might be able to be used by the confederacy.

Kentucky was captured territory.

It was an armed camp. The federal government abused

its authority and before that

war as was over, the first

modern wars what a lot of profer professors like to call the un

civil war which was of course a war for independence.

A civil war is a war where you

are fighting for the same territory like in england, the

same crown.

Here it was richmond vs. Washington, two different

territories, a war for

independence and standing on the principles.

>> richard, excuse me, we have the three-minute.

>> are we there? >> yes, sir.

And appreciate your passion. Certainly do and appreciate the

lessons that you are sharing

with us but we are past three minutes.

>> thank you. >> study your history, folks.

There is a whole different side, I feel like I'm in michigan

right now. thank you.

>> yes, sir.

Phil. >> I'm phil mackson, I live on

clear waterway across the street from veterans park.

I am also a native electrics tonian and also --

lexingtonian and a history major

and also teach classes on kentucky and the civil war.

One thing I do want to make sure

of is that these statues are not removed from downtown.

I do want to make sure about that.

I have an idea late at the end

here where they might go if you

move it from cheapside.

I do recommend that you add

another statue to cheapside, and

that is a statue of an african-american soldier, union

soldier from the 116th usct infantry regiment that many of

them were from fayette county

who were formed, trained and camp nelson kentucky just south

of here, jesseman county who

fought at petersburg fought against lee's troops, they were

also at appomattox.

They went to texas with gordon

granger, general gordon granger.

But under his command and they were the ones that help add

nouns the freedom to the slaves

in texas today celebrated as juneteenth. Gordon granger as a matter of

fact is buried here in lexington he was stationed here for a

while and married a lexingtonian

I think it would be very good to

have a victorious union african-american soldier from

the 116th statue on the short street side of cheapside.

The reason for short street because to me it's very symbolic

you talk about the slave auction s at cheapside.

Well a lot of slaves were sold

at the slave jails on short street, slave jails, the whip

ping post was on short street. I think it would be very symbol

ic to have that on that

short street side. Now I also do want to say one

thing about the older statues

and I don't really care much

about the john hunt morgan but john c. Breckenridge, I do want

to say, I'm not going to forgive him for what he did.

He wasn't a traitor but he is still... He is the only, his

statue down there, he is not in uniform. He was the only vice President

Of the united states from

lexington. He was from one of the most

important families in kentucky's

history which was split, his

uncle, the reverend robert j.

Breckenridge was an adviser to

link onand helped kentucky from

sea seeding and when he came

back to lexington after the war,

he made a vigorous statement denouncing the ku klux klan.

It would be ironic if they came

in to try to save that statue. >> I'm sorry you got the three-

minute mark again.

Thank y'all.

>> I have been a resident of lexington central kentucky for

nearly 40 years, a native of

northern kentucky.

So I consider both my home, but

this is my current home.

And I want to say that I'm very heartened and proud of the

majority of what has been said

here this evening and the

initial decision the council has made. I hope you will follow through

on that same decision. My interest in this issue has

gone on for quite a while ever

since it became a public issue.

It's an academic one first.

My studies at lsu as a graduate

student were all about southern

speech making after the civil

war and about 99% of it was made and became famous in front of

the dedication of monuments like

the two we are discussing

tonight the second reason I have

an interest is because I have

and was given four names. Maybe some of you know somebody

with four names.

But mine are john c. Breckenridge marquette.

I go by brak out of no embarrass ment. It's just shorter.

But it does reflect the fact that I am a kentuckian.

My families have been here since

the earliest days and they were

among them slave owners and not,

confederates and union soldiers.

One side of the family admired m

r. Breckenridge to the extent

that shortly after his death they named one of their sons

after him. ... I didn't plan to speak

tonight. But after calls for solidarity

and calls from take back cheap stewed for all of us to lend our

voices to the cause I saw a

podium and as an academic I grab bed some paper and scribbled

notes so here we go. I was scared to speak tonight

and the realization and the recognition of that fear despite

my massive privilege and my security is what compels me to

stand here shaking before you

with the hope that I can lend my

voice in some small and

inadequate way for those whose

fears of retaliation are all too real.

I want to speak on the experience we shared on the trip

to charleston where we sat in mother emanuel church and heard

about the horrible heart break ing aftermath of the murder

s in the hallowed halls. We were called on then to serve

our community by fronting the uncomfortable and ugly truths of

racism in our past and present.

To deal with the murders fueled

by hate, racist hate that is a more horrible manifestation of

our nation's much deeper illness

of white supremacy and we now as

a city come to such a long over due moment, an opportunity

to take a first and crucial step

along the path of healing of acknowledging past wrongs and

starting to do right by our

sisters and brothers of color,

to hide behind bureaucracy in

this moment, to equivocate with

its tediousness would be a gross

act of coward is.

Lexington must send an un equivocal message that we fear

no truth of the past or present,

that hate has no place in our

streets and will not be sewn in our sown in our hearts.

We must love each other fearless

ly, please.

My council, my city, take these statues down and let's get to work.

Thank you.

>> sam.

>> my name is sam, resident of lexington. Also commander of the local camp

of the son's confederates veteran named after john c. breckenridge.

There has been a local camp of

this organization in lexington since 1897.

Sons of confederate veterans is

a non-profit non-sectarian

historical to the preservation

of confederate history and heritage.

It has publicly condemned the misuse of our confederate symbol

s and monuments by all groups who espouse an agenda of

racial hatred. We condemn the actions of any

group attempting to use these monuments for their own extrem

ist political agendas.

History and art can often be comptroller but eradicating art

which some opposes simply central soarship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship.

Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship.

Has always resisted since its

earliest foundations of liberty.

Erasing history in art that is disagreeable denies us the

benefit of studying it and learning from it.

The moving of these monuments would be the sanitizing of the

history of lexington. It would cost hundreds of

thousands of dollars.

That money would be much better spent by adding to our shared

understanding of history by

placing a monument on the old courthouse grounds to the

african americans from lexington

who served in the union army.

We would support such a project. We need to add to our

understanding of history, not take away from it.

We ask that the council not stampede into making such a

decision, especially when the timing of doing so would appear

to be an invitation to bring dis cord from charlottesville to

lexington. We ask that the monuments remain

thank you.

>> thank you, sam.

Burl ma could I, did I call... >> good afternoon ladies and

gentlemen of council. Mime burl macoy representative

of morgan's men, a non-profit

organization made up of

descendants of men that rode with general john hunt morgan

and also other people of

interest in the civil war and of

particularly of Mr. Morgan.

It was established in 1868 at

the phoenix hotel in lexington, kentucky.

It's a non-profit organization open to any person.

Obviously we oppose the moving

of the morgan statue and of the

breckenridge statue. I reflected on this and I have

been in lexington for quite a

while and I wondered why did they put morgan and breckenridge

up there? And I reject the idea that it

was put up there to frighten blacks.

I reject the idea that it was

put up there as a white supremacist.

Those statues were put up there because morgan and breckenridge

were leaders of men and they are

still leaders of men.

The army ranger school studies

morgan's tactics today and I as an infantry officer some 30 or

40 years ago studied them when I

was at fort beening. Morgan was not only a general.

He was on the school council, school board, captain of the

fire department, a member of the masonic lodge along with

breckenridge and he was also a captain in the state guards in

the mexican war.

So this gentleman this genoas a

leader of men. You don't know where you are

going to put them. Two, you don't know where you

are going to get the money to move them. And you don't even know how much

it's going to cost.

And three, your most likely going to lose your tax credit

contrary to what the newspapers reported.

So who nodes how much this is going to cost and not counting

if we have to have the police

here because of a group of craz

ies.

Why don't you take a referendum. You can hold your signs up and

make your t-shirts, 68% of the

people tonight do not want to move the statue, just for claire

if I days -- claire if I indication, cheapside was named

after cheapside market in london

thank you very much.

J.R. Is next. >> good evening.

I'm J.R., I live on ridge way road in chevy chase.

I'm sort of known here in lexington recently as the person

that started the lexington unit ed interfaith encounters. In the past 48 hours since I

spoke on tuesday, I've spoken with dozens of interfaith and

community leaders, christian,

jewish, muslim, buddhist. Each has reiterated a common theme.

We must not only condemn racism, hatred and violence but also

stand in solidarity with the victims.

Standing in solidarity with the

victims, those who are harmed,

injured, or who are killed,

demands that we respect hallowed ground, made sacred by the

wholesale buying and selling of

brothers and sisters, men, women

, aged, infirm, youth,

children, endowed with the same

dignity that we all share, but

without the privilege and the

good fortune that we all enjoy.

This demands that statues and monuments indicating and glorify

ing anything to the

contrary on that hallowed ground

be removed. I stand with the victims who

have no voice today except mine and yours.

They were called bucks and wrenches when put up for auction

at cheapside.

I call them and we call them

brothers and sisters of sacred memory.

This evening there is a moral

imperative that your vote must

ratify and verify.

Thank you. >> thank you, J.R.

Let me make a suggestion while we are here.

Several of you have brought signs and I think there is an

appreciation and acknowledgment of that.

Your presence is really known. But I sense that some of the

council members May think that

that, and I May think that as well is a little too much of a

demonstration. So if you maybe would want to,

I'm not going to say don't, but you might want to retrain from

that a little bit. All right. Okay.

Just an encouragement. All right.

Next is carol jordan and then alexandria johns and then I'm

going to call more folks up, p.

G. Peoples, mat bryant cheney,

jessica short long, darryl davis

, charles paine and carla. >> my name is carol jordan.

I live on merrick drive in bill farmer's district.

I moved to lexington in 1990 in

my mid swents so -- 20s so I've been here almost 30 years.

Before living here I lived in tennessee.

My roots are very deep in the south, both sides of my family

are from the south, some of whom were confederate soldiers.

I understand being a southerner. Having said that, I'm very

offended by the statues at cheapside park.

A sacred space where men, women and children were once sold is

not an appropriate place for the

statues of confederate generals.

I do not want to erase or sanitize history.

I want a more complete story.

We have not forgotten the

atrocities of the holocaust, nor has germany.

They know they do not need statues of hitler to remember

the past.

Removing the statues that glorify two men who fought

against the union is not sanitizing history.

Given the events in our country

recently in charlottesville,

durham, baltimore, new orleans, louisville, gainesville, even

los angeles, it is our turn to act.

The time is now.

Not only is lexington watching,

the nation is watching.

History is watching.

If you vote against this, I believe you will be aligning

yourself with white nationalists , white supremacists

and nazis. Nazis.

History is watching. I sincerely hope for a unanimous

vote to move the statues.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alexandria johns.

>> ladies and gentlemen of the council, mayor gray, hi.

Excuse me while I read from my phone.

A lot of fine gentlemen have talked tonight about history and

they've taught me some things I

didn't know about history, but

this is not about history anymore.

As of saturday things have changed. With the nation at large trying

to make sense of itself, the statues at cheapside are no

longer simple representations of our past.

No, those statues and what you

decide to do with them will be a

telling representation of our future.

Like many other cities our city like many cities we have been

called upon to send a message to ourselves and to all americans

and to those who would shirk their patriotism to stand under

the many flags of white

supremacy that lexington, kentucky will not stand idle in

the face of bigotry or be cowed

into silence.

With the events of charlottesville looming large,

it must be now, not later we

have a duty not to forget the history we were built upon but

to begin to tackle it with

honesty and compassion. If those statues were placed

because lects tonnians wanted

them to be there then let's move

them because that's what lexington wants now.

I appreciate your time, I appreciate your getting us to

this point, I look forward to

you moving us forward. >> I'm President Of the local

urban league.

For over 20 years the urban

league was housed in what is now a hotel.

My office was on the fourth

floor on the upper street side of the building.

Every day as I looked out my

window, you know what I saw. I never paid that much attention

to the statue until one day I was sitting in my office and a

young man came in.

He was, he and a crew were doing some work in one of the

buildings downtown and he was beside himself. He said follow me.

There is something I must show

you so I followed him and we

went into the bowels of one of

the buildings that bordered cheapside.

Some of you in this room May know the rest of this story.

But he carried me back into the

bowels there and I saw shackles

where the slaves were held as they were being prepared to take

to cheapside to be sold. What a revelation for me to see

that.

I went back to my office and

from that day to today, I

associated the symbols, the

confederate outside my window

and the shackles that I saw in

the basement.

There is nothing I can do about

the shackles because that's on

private property.

But tonight I can do something

about the statues.

I can appeal to you and ask for

unanimous vote to please follow

the request of the mayor and his

administration and lets move the statue.

Thank you very much. >> thank you.

Mr. Mat cheney. I'm going to call some more

folks while we are at it.

Charles payne and carla already called.

Reverend cb akins, reba english,

quinn, andrew bowling and

marilyn dishman. >> I am mat cheney.

I want to thank peggy henson's office for being in contact with

me today. I thank all of you for the work

you do for our city.

I've come today to support take wak cheapside movement because

they asked me to be here. They put out a call yesterday

asking people to come and speak

and to support their movement.

I want to ask, as many others have tonight, that that council

vote unanimously to remove the

statues of john hunt morgan and

john breckenridge from cheapside park. I would also like to ask that

the statues not be moved to

another public park in lexington

such as set resistance --

veterans park.

i hope they can be moved to a museum or confederate location.

As a father, as a mb of a multi racial family, as a person

of faith, as a taxpayer, and as

a teacher of american literature

and southern culture and the scholar, I beg this council to

remove these statues. Please choose to honor the

history and memory of those

people known as slaves.

Whose lives were ruined at cheapside park whose suffering

was made worse by people like

john hunt morgan and john breckenridge.

I have been reading a lot about

the history of hatred such as

the kkk and others and in my reading I learned that the

reason that that organization

chose to wear white garb and

sheets over their faces was, in

part, because of intimidation,

but it was also to honor dead confederate soldiers and to

represent and symbolize them.

We continue to honor those confederate soldiers by keeping

the statues in our city. And I would ask that you stop that.

Thank you. >> all right. Who is next.

Just come on up. I'm jessica.

I'm a doctoral candidate at the

university of kentucky and an alum.

Now I grew up in, I guess, in

the heart of southern pride a

small town in kentucky. And everyone had rebel flags%

because no one was going to tell

southerners what to do.

My grandfather played john hunt

morgan in a town pageant.

I mean my father was thrilled

when I got into transy and we

went and saw john hunt morgan's sword.

And we went and toured the

morgan house.

So when I started hearing, I get

y motional of the well-being

of the african americans and at

first my old southern pride kick ed in and I thought, oh well

, they're being too sensitive.

I'm not going to change because I'm not racist.

I'm not holding... Because I'm

racist but then a little voice

said wait a minute are you

dictating someone else's life

experience to them?

Well, that gave me pause and I

started having a debate within

myself and the small voice said,

tell me is the rebel flag a

symbol for anything who is it

making your black brothers and

sisters feel unwelcome?%

is it worth it? No.

It is absolutely not worth it.

Removing the statues won't erase

history but it will make it less

painful for the people who

suffered from it.

It's not going to hurt us.

It's the only thing we can do.

Thank you. >> darryl davis. >> thank you.

I have been downtown for 25 years, walked cheapside every

day for 25 years except on the weekends.

I notice those statues every day

many times people have asked me what direction, where do I go,

where do I find this? I find myself in front of those

statues helping people and it

gave me long pause to think that I'm working down here.

i always feel bad about them and

I never knew who to talk to or

what it would come to, who to talk to to get them moved but

those statues, they hurt me every day that I work downtown

and I hope I always had a smile

to tell people, hey, this is the

place to go, I hoped I was a good ambassador for lexington

but those statues are very hurt ful for people of color and

I hope the council people vote to move them.

Thank you.

>> carla, come on. >> I'm carla here on behalf of

commerce lexington where I serve as chair of the board.

A big part of the role of the chamber of commerce is to help

the business community grow and how do we do that?

We do that by working to create

the environment and opportunity for economic prosperity and a

quality of life for those in central kentucky.

After reaching out to our executive board, we felt

strongly that in order to sustain and further strengthen

our vibrant community, we all

must do what we can to make lexington welcoming for all.

As such, dmers lexington

supports mayor jim gray and the urban county council's efforts

to move the confederate statues away from one of the city's

central gathering spots. Lexington is a welcoming

community and the decision will help reinforce all of electric

ington including downtown is a place for everyone

to feel comfortable and enjoy. Outside influences that attempt

to spread hate and big theory

are not acceptable and will not overpower the compassion and

respect that we have for all

segments of our community one of

the response was the -- born from the trip were the courageous

conversations ongoing to this day throughout our community.

By coming together and learning

more about one another, our need s, our challenges, our

similarities and our differences , we recognize we can

better impact positive change for our community.

How our community reacts to

something like this will define that community for generations.

Let's make sure that we continue to build a lexington that is

open and welcoming for all segments of our community.

Thank you. >> I'm charles paine.

I'm President Of the river park

neighborhood association.

Ashed some of you May recall me

and our efforts to repurpose the

trent boulevard property.

So to borrow a phrase from my

daughter, I identify as a conservative.

Some people might even call me a

right winger, I go to a fundamental independent baptist dhump.

I recognize that we live under a constant -- a constitutional

republic and as such then I'm a

firm believer in preserving all

aspects of the constitution that said, I support the mayor and

the proposition to send the

issue to the state for the re

location of the statues at the

cheapside property.

Contemporary slavery. I wonder if we all couldn't get

as passionate about that issue

and stamp out contemporary

slavery just as we work to

correct the injustices of the past.

Thank you for your service to

the citizens of lexington.

>> reverend cb akins.

>> thank you, mayor.

City council members. For the past 34 plus years I

have been pleased to serve as

pastor of the first baptist rag

town church on lease down road. I've also been intimately

engaged in continuous improvement efforts in our city

as collectively we have worked

to make it better.

Removing the kraft statutes is another step in the continuous

improvement process.

I do hope lexington cemetery will allow the statues to be

moved there where the bodies of

these men are already interred. The geographic symbolism is

apparent to me as we seek to

burry negative harmful perceptions that have caused us

to demean, degrade and devalue

many of our own citizens.

These statues are constant reminders of an era in our

history in which most of us take

no pride today.

It is far past time of divisive

pride that has never has and will not now propel us toward a

future that is equitable for all

our persons. Clergy, ak deemickians, business

persons from every trade must

come out of the shadows and recognize that silence is indeed

a vote that will prove to be on

the wrong side of history.

We must take a strong public stand for our city.

This is not the time to waffle

or equivocate frederick douglas

once said I prefer to be true to

myself even at the hazard of

incurring the ridicule of others

rather than to be false and to

incur my own abhorns this is

just about doing what is right.

>> reba english. >> I want to thank everybody

here in support of take back cheapside. Most people know I want to move

the statues so I will be brief. I just want to talk about one of

the first times that I encounter

ed confederate imagery.

It was my junior year, junior summer I am from paris, kentucky

, went to bourbon county high school. We had to register for classes

so my grandmother took me to the high school to register for classes.

Now like I said, I grew up in bourbon county, throughout my

adolescence I saw meant of confederate imagery and didn't

think that much about it.

My school had muddy truck day so

it's deep in that type of thing.

So as we were walking in the building, I see a truck with a

confederate flag on it and he is

playing a country song and the country song is talking about

hanging niggers. And that is the first time that

I realized what those symbols really meant.

I was afraid today at some point

I was frayed for my family.

I was afraid for my friends that

were in the struggle with me.

I was afraid for this city and

afraid for people who aren't necessarily even involved in

what is going on right now. But I guess what I'm trying to

say is now is not the time for that fear.

I've also heard a lot of people in, of course, support of the

statues and that is what let me know I should speak today

because all I heard from those

people was fear.

I heard their fear of being erased, taken from a prominent

position in our society. Mayor gray said at the very

beginning of this meeting that they secured private funding in

order to move the statues if

that time came and I heard count less people talk about

things like taxes. You are not listening.

I heard countless people talk

about where the statues are going to go when mayor gray is

working on that right now and stated as such.

I just think when we come to

this issue, if we can't let go

of our fear, then this whole

american experience -- experiment is in its last days.

We must stand up for every person in our community and

until we stand up for every person in our community, none of

us will be free. Racism hurts every single person

in this room. If you believe that black people

are less, you will vote for

things that give black people less. But what you don't realize is

that you give yourself less.

One of the things I do is I

study healthcare a lot and I

know that medicaid and programs

like that are synonomous with black people.

But the top five counties in this state that have the most

medicaid usages are some of our rural counties. They need things like that.

But some of those rural counties

have some people in it and cit ies as well have some people

in it that believe that people shouldn't have those things.

And when they don't believe that

those people have those things

that darm -- that carm karma comes back to them.

Until every person addresses that racism hurts every person

in this room, we will never win.

>> thank you.

>> I live in the first districted. I'm glad that we are here today

and I appreciate you hearing us

today and these statues have got

to go and I'm looking forward to your unanimous vote on that decision.

I wish that could I say that lexington is better than the

violence and hate we see every

day on the news but we are not.

We have allowed these hateful relics to persist and it wasn't

until a black led group started

to advocate for their removal

that folks started to pay attention.

And it wasn't until someone died in charlottesville that you

hurried up to this moment. But I'm still glad we are here

and we must take these statues down. But I'm hoping that your work

doesn't end with this issue. Moving these statues is one of

many actions our city and you

can take to address white

supremacy and prioritize racial equity.

But know that moving these statues won't suddenly make

lexington a hate free place. It won't guarantee that

lexington is a safe and welcoming place for people of

color. We've heard there May be nazis

in our town today.

Sadly we've had nazis in our town for years.

Your leadership on this issue

matters today but it cannot end here.

This is your moment to show that

you are listening to people of color.

This is your moment to begin to

serve us bravely without fear of discomfort, without fear of not

being reelected. Only then when racist and people

with hate in their heart know

that they're not going to be comfortable living here, will

you know that you are doing your job.

Thank you.

>> andrew bowling and then lair min -- marilyn.

>> thank you. I was struck earl dwrer when

someone else admonished those

attending here to read our history because I do read our

history a lot and that seems to be a sticking point for a lot of

people opposed to taking these statues down.

They say that it's a matter of

history, that removing the statues erases our history.

I will be honest with you.

I wish the way to mepped the

wounds that racism and white supremacy and colonization has

inflicted on this world were so easy that we could fix it by

just removing to statues but we

know that's not that simple.

In truth statues are not the

vehicles on which our history

travels those are called books. Books have a richer far more

detailed history of our country than any statue could.

It is unfortunate that the people who have been most

vehemently opposed to the removal of these statues, the

white supremacists we saw in charlottesville and the white

supremacists who threaten

lexington now, it's unfortunate they cannot appreciate the value

of books but perhaps that is because they come from a

tradition of burning books and bonfires.

Maybe if they didn't, they could appreciate that the removal of

these statues is not the removal

of our history. I digress a little bit.

Let me be full and transparent that I am strongly opposed to

any effort to sanitize or white

wash the history of our society. The histor of this country

should not be forgotten but

preserved so that it will remind

all of us but especially those of us with the privilege and the

social capital that comes with whiteness of the debts that

remain unpaid to people of color

, to black people and to everyone else who has been

targeted by oppression in this

country, this state and this city. Not only should we remember this

history because of the debt owed

to the victims of oppression who came before us but also because

of the debt owed to the survivor

s of depression herein' the survivors of oppression.

Removing the statues so no one

would have to stand in the shadow of white supremacist is

the first step but it's not the last step.

And that is why I encourage each

of you to vote unanimously to remove the statues from cheapside park.

Thank you.

>> thank you for the opportunity to talk again.

I know some of you were not convinced of the need to remove the statues.

I want to impress upon you, none of us here wants to erase

history but we do want it to be

presented fairly and truthfully. If you are that interested in

preserving history, why aren't

there monuments of harriet tubman, of other blacks.

Why isn't there a monument to

henry clay's servant who sued

him for her freedom and won?

To me that's a big deal,

especially for a woman and a slave. Okay?

Now I want to take you back

again to tuesday, if you can bear with me.

Close your eyes and pretend that

you are an african female slave

in God's eyes you are married

but in the middle of the night while you are sleeping in the

same bed with your husband, the

white slave master comes to get

you to comfort himself.

How would you like it if that

were your wife, your mother,

your sister, your daughter? I don't think anybody in here

would like that!

And suppose she gave him a hard

time, and she was beaten, she was beaten if she looked him in

the eyes. We couldn't even look white

people in the eyes.

That was considered disrespect ful.

So I ask everyone in here. Why would you want to honor

someone who treated you like that? I don't think you would want to

if you really thought about it.

or if you were in my position,

and take a good look at me.

Do I look like your typical african?

You know why I'm a little bit different?

My blood has been diluted by those white slave masters taking

advantage of my ancestors.

I can't escape the color I am,

nor can I escape my history, but I can damn well do something

about the present and hopefully the future.

I do hope that everyone in here

can understand what we, as

people of color, have had to

endure and are continuing to endure.

Have I ever feared for my life? Yes.

We were threatened when we de segregated the schools in

scott county, I as a child and

my father as a horse trainer.

But it didn't stop us, people.

And it's not going to stop me now.

And above all, I think of mark

barnard as a friend of mine.

I know that he will take care of me. I know that he will take care of

each one of you because he is a good man.

He has a good heart and he is going to make sure that

lexingtonings safe from any

hatred... Any person full of hatred.

So I say unto you even though I

can't help you, don't be afraid. Be fearless.

Thank you. >> you the. Council member plomin was going

to offer a motion to extend time and she didn't even need it.

All right.

Marsha moore charles.

and persia knewman, steven katz,

janet hewitt, charles young.

>> I live at 37 line drive. Good evening mayor and council

and thank you again for allowing us as citizens to speak to

things of importance to us. When I spoke to you tuesday

afternoon I shared the stories

of two of mine african-american parishioners whose ancestors

were bought at a slave auction at cheapside.

I asked you then to imagine the

deep hurt and yes the anger at

the symbolism of the statues in question and do the right thing

by relocating them. Tonight I appeal to you to

confirm the unanimous decision you made tuesday and although I

realize you have constituents that do not agree with these

actions and we have certainly

heard from some of them, instead of looking at this situation

with a lot of stress, which I

know it certainly can be, I'm going to invite you to look at

the wonderful opportunity that

you have as leaders of this great city.

I counted a tremendous blessing to be able to stand before you

for a second time and advocate for our african-american

brothers and sisters. What an opportunity we all have

to be part of the right side of history.

What a chance to have part of our legacy reflect that we were

humble enough and courageous enough to look at something that

we know is wrong and make it right.

That's the opportunity before

you tonight not to undo the

damage, the tremendous damage to

the emotions of our african-american brothers and

sisters but certainly to offer

some degree of emotional resolution tuition and to be on

-- restitution and to be on record that were you brave

enough to use your leadership

position to do what is right.

As christian minister I rely on

biblical scripture to lead my life.

I try to give it an honest effort.

I'm reminded of one of the psalms of david when all around

them seemed hopeless, enm is from every direction, no light

in sight, so david is crying out

and it seems to me in that cry,

I can hear the echos of our black ancestors joining it.

Have compassion on me, lord, for

I am weak. Heal me for my bones are in agony.

I'm sick at heart. How long oh lord until you

restore me? How long?

My fellow citizens, mayor gray and council and specifically

those of us who identify as white, perhaps we can answer the

cry coming from beneath the hallow ground of cheapside with

an undoing of what our ancestors caused.

As we respond to the question

how long with this answer. Too long.

Way too long.

We are going to fix it.

Miss Newman.

Okay.

Shasta? >> I understand by standing here

tonight I'm putting a target on

my head like many before me.

John brown, harriette stow,

william lloyd garrison,

frederick douglas, harriette tub

harriet tubman, henry david

thoreau, douglas Macarthur,

nancy wake, L.C.Ott, these are

the names of americans, men and

women, black and white who are the heroes of our american

history who have given their

lives fighting against slavery,

against holocaust fighting for the american dream that all men

are created equal and they

derive rights inherent and inalienable among which are the

preservation of life, liberty

and the pursuit of happiness.

These are the soldiers that deserve statues.

These are the war heroes that deserve to be celebrated in our

town centers. I also came here chasing the

american dream, legally, of course.

I escaped piet piet south africa with my family to come to the

land of the free. Supposedly celebrating my

freedom, a land that would give

me opportunities, give me the right to vote, the right to get

an education, to own a bank account, to own property, right

to make my own medical decisions

, the right to be street -- treated as an equal.

I exercise those rights fully.

I waited my due turn, I applied for citizenship, I got it.

I want to college. I became a doctor and now I

practice at U.K. Serving many low income kentuckians at

virtually no cost to them.

But not a day goes by that these

patients of mine take every opportunity to let it be known

that I am not welcome here. From the moment that I've step

ped foot in the united

states, I have been told by mouth and fists that I am not

american looking enough; that I

need to go back to where I come from and that there is no place

for me here my skin color oppress me in a third world

country and continues to oppress

me in a country that is supposed to embrace equality.

I cannot believe I'm standing

here in 2017 fighting for

principles that I fought for in

1994 in apartheid south africa. In a land that was supposed to

advocate for equality, life, the pursuit of happiness.

So profit to me.

Take down those confederate

statues and show the world that

americans really fight for

freedom. >> thank you.

Ginger smithwick.

>> I cede my time to aaron presley.

>> thank you all for hearing me.

Part of me is very glad to be

here in front of you and I feel blessed that this room is full

and that you are all here listen

ing but I also feel amazed

and shocked and discouraged that

any of us have to be here today discussing this issue when there

are so many things that would be better holders of our time.

I actually had a little speech

written before I came but I wait ed outside for a couple of

hours and I was amazed I didn't feel angry anymore and I didn't

feel like I had to be mad

because the people out there,

the people that put you in office, the people that pay

their taxes and love this city

and work here and have children

here and want to see us prosper,

these people are outside and

they expect you to vote yes and to move these statues.

And they don't do it out of hate newspaper of us hate history.

None of us hate our neighbors. We don't want to take away

anything from anyone. What we want to do is show that

we know that things have been taken away from our

african-american brothers and sisters and we want to restore

something to them if there is any way possible that we can do that.

We can not erase history and we don't want to.

We don't want to rewrite history we don't want to pretend it didn't happen.

What we want to do is respect

everyone that is here.

I'm sure all of you know that

our state motto, what is it can someone?

United we stand, divided we fall

I'm sure most if not all of you knew that.

I hope so anyway.

The point is that when that

motto was chosen for our state, it was true and today it is still true.

If we are united, we are strong. If we stand next to each other,

we are strong. There is nothing we can't do if

we all come together. But these statues are standing

right between us it is no different than putting up a wall

this is shame that we are put ting on display and parading

as something that we are proud of.

People that we want to commemorate and how can you

commemorate something without condoning its behavior.

`I don't think it's possible and i can tell you that there are

hundreds of people standing outside right now dying to get

in here and that they all feel

the exact same way. There is no one outside with

hate in their heart. Everyone is itching to get in

here to tell you the same thing that I'm telling you, which is

thank you for coming to action. Thank you for voting on this and

thank you for not let can us down because we know that you

are going to vote to relocate this the statues.

Everyone outside kind of has the

same idea and that is we want to support each other.

We want to support the people in

here and we want to minimize the damage, if we can, that's

already been done. Again, you know, I feel blessed

to be here and I thank you for hearing me but before I go, I

just want to say it seems a little silly that we are talking

about something that happened

150 years ago and maybe after today you won't have to hear us

talk about this anymore. None of you will.

It will be over with and done

and we can get on to some other things that are more relevant.

Thank you. >> steven katz and I think I've

called, let me go ahead and call more while you are coming up.

Janet hewitt, charles young liz

he han -- sheehan.

Forgive me if I mispronounce

anybody.

>> I live at a home in the second district.

I'm not originally from lexington but I have lived here

for 23 and a half years and I've

seen a lot of change in that time.

I'm a native of patterson new jersey, when I came here, I hope

I'm not offending anybody, but I

was shocked to have endon'ter --

encountered a few black lects tonnians that looked to me like

they might have been scraping and shuffling a little bit and

it prompted me to look into the history of the town that I had

moved to and I learned that there is a reason for that they

had been intimidated through

decades even centuries by a

power structure that was intent

on keeping them in their place;

that would erect statues honor

ing the secretary of war

from the confederacy, the trait or breckenridge and

terrorist morgan alongside the steps up to the courthouse to

make sure the people knew they ain't getting justice there from

these folks. Things have changed. That was then.

It is a different day. When I came here originally I

couldn't find a black man in lexington that was a kentucky

fan they were all louisville

fans because they remembered a domestic violence rob who is

buried in the lexington cemetery

not too far from breckenridge

and morgan.

Things have changed and we've

got to change along with them. One of the things that's

changing in the world today is there has never been a time, I

don't believe, that lexington has had more eyes focused on it

in the world than right now.

This is bigger than these concerns that I just expressed

and that other people have expressed.

the whole world is watching and you got to make a statement.

You got to show some leadership. I've done great work.

One of the biggest changes I've seen in the time that I've been

in lexington have been the advanced made by this council in

recent years.

Where we passed a minimum wage right even though it was

overruled, you stepped to the plate. We passed an affordable housing

trust fund, you have shown

concern for the whole community,

the whole community needs your

leadership now, oob unanimous about it.

>> janet hewitt.

>> I want to say I'm glad the campaign has made it this far

but what we are doing today should have been done at least

two years ago.

Waiting to do the right thing by moving these statues has en

dangered our entire community, our whole city and mostly the

people who have already been en dangered by the presence of

those statues and the behaviors

that they encouraged and reinforce.

So I just want to say to you all

that I really hope we use this as a learning opportunity so

that the next time black people tell us that something is

harmful to them, we know better. White people know better than to

argue otherwise.

I'd like to repeat something that was said earlier.

Not to act is to act. Not to speak is to speak.

So I ask you please unanimously vote to move these statues and

never make this mistake again.

>> thank you Mr. Mayor, vice mayor, council members, fellow

lexington citizens. I was born and raised in the

shadow of stone mountain,

georgia, where there are monuments to confederate

soldiers hanging on a wall on a mountain side that every time we

drive by we can't help but

realize what is going on. So therefore I want to talk to

you, I have been in the

lexington area now since '98 and

I want to talk to you about

sanitizing history and about intimidation.

Let me suggest first that intimidation is often claimed to

be non-intentional but it's

really cannot be denied.

The segregation and is en franchisement laws known as

jim crowe that represented a system of racial apartheid that

dominated the american south for three quarters of a century

began in the 1890s. I bring that out because we talk

a lot in this room today about the civil war.

But we haven't talked about re construction and what re

construction tried do and how

reconstruction ended in 1877.

And after that, jim crowe laws began.

This is important because these

statues are erected in this park right during the time of jim

crowe laws.

So if you want to talk about intimidation, talk about the

fact that persons who were still alive at the time of the

erection of these statues, who

had been sold at auction, persons who were still alive

were not consulted, were not thought about when the decision

was made to place these statues there.

I had the honor in 2006 to serve

the st. Paul african methodist episcopal church.

And one of the things, st. Paul

was a stop on the underground railroad.

There is a hidden door above the sanctuary where slaves had

opportunity to hide for one to two days on their way trying to

get to freedom.

I was told by persons from translyvania university when

they brought them in for tours,

that they were able, because buildings were not as tall in

those days, to see as far as cheapside and so you had persons

trying to get to freedom watch ing others being sold there

when you did not consult them

for placing of those statues,

that's a form of intimidation.

Now in 2017, we have the opportunity to have a voice

where our ancestors had no voice it would be bad for us to not

speak up and to suggest that those statues need to be

replaced and sent to the cemetery where they belong and

not be in a place where fore

fathers were treated inhumanely, treated without

dignity and without respect and to allow them to continue to be

treated without respect.

I urge you as a council to adopt

the resolution to move those statues and I thank you for your time.

>> thank you, sir. >> I'm liz sheehan in district 5

I'm here to support the removal of the statues.

Soith are built on rules and convention and our society one

of those conventions is that we

use monuments and statues to honor people and events.

We've heard people point to perceived good actions of john

breckenridge and john hunt morgan.

But those do not outweigh the long list of reasons why they

should not be honored. I am a teacher.

I've been a teacher for over 10 years.

These statues are not about educating us on history.

They are a symbol of oppression. To make matters worse, they

stand in a place where so many

people were abused. In their actions, breckenridge

and morgan supported that

oppression and abuse. This still affects our community

today and stunting our growth as a city of compassion and a city

that welcomes all people.

Based on our society's conventions, we are honoring

these men and the confederacy by keeping those statues.

That is not right.

It was not right when they were erected.

It isn't right now.

It is well past time to remove

these statues. For the argument that this is

erasing or sanitizing history, removing the statues does not

stop us from learning about

these men, the civil war or the confederacy. I learned about these well

before I ever saw these statues.

Secondly, letting these statues remain at cheapside is minimiz

ing and disrespecting the history of the thousands of

people who were sold and slaves

in that location. Those are the people that should

be honored.

let's not delay this anymore. I urge for you to call for a

second reading tonight if that

is required for this resolution

and to vote unanimously so that

there is no doubt that lexington

will fight against oppression, racism and hatred.

Thank you for hearing my statement today. >> all right.

Thank you.

Giles, tom randolph, pamela

james, daniel goulding, joel

edwards. >> thank you for allowing me to

speak tonight if you build a political controversy over

confederate monuments,

troublemakers will come.

The mayor and city council of charlottesville built a political controversy and

troublemakers who wanted to

engage in violence came in force

either through design or incompetence, the mayor of

charlottesville and the governor

of virginia, in my opinion, allowed for violence to get out

of hand in charlottesville.

That resulted in the death of a peaceful protestor.

Many people were beaten severely

many were attacked with chemical s by those who had come,

many wearing masks, to violently protest and beat the protestors

who were protesting the removal

of the lee monument at lee park. If the ult right comes to

protest the removal of the monuments in lexington, the ult

left will come prepared to beat them and attack them with

chemicals as they have attacked conservatives in charlottesville

, berkeley, california, southern california,

chicago and washington D.C. we play not agree with the ult

right but they have a constitutional right to chant

and protest whatever they want.

I doubt the lexington mayor and lexington police are prepared

for what might come. The virginia state police were

not effective when the going got

tough, the virginia state police

left lee park because it was

quote too dangerous" to stay. I suggest you take some time and

let things calm down in this country regarding the monuments

to the confederate heroes.

Think of an alternative. Why not take the federal reserve , hundreds of thousands of dollars it might cost to remove the monuments and put

that money toward an exhibit

about the 5,000-year history of slavery and institution which is

alive and well today from what I have read.

Why not put up a monument celebrating frederick douglas.

Why not a upon ument celebrating the native americans who were

here before us?

Do they not matter?

Why not take sometime and re

think what you are going to do

. I like the idea of a more than

ument to the woman who sued henry clay morgan.

Thank you for your time. >> I happened to hear how the

statues of breckenridge and morgan are statues of important

people from important families

and, you know, I'd like to say that there are a lot of

important families that were

broken up by the slave trade, people who were separated from

their wives and children and

treated as chatel. they were important, too.

They May not have had fancy titles.

They May not have had land or

wealth or political office. Those people don't get statues.

But they were important. They were just as important as

everyone else because I believe

that every human being is equal, every human being has a right to

dignity and I read an article

recently about the so called

forgotten 44 abolitionists who

were arrested in kentucky and

they were just recently pardoned

for their crime posthumously in 2010.

These people deserve a statue like gillette miles who served

three years time for stealing

her own children. Those people are important.

Those are people, that's history that has been erased.

That's history that has been sanitized by things like this

statue that creates a narrative that the important people are

white, wealthy land owners while everyone is important and

everyone who has suffered and

fought for their rights deserves

some kind of honor, some kind of respect.

And one last thing just speaking

of history, it was the historian

howard zen who said it was the

countless acts of ordinary people who lead to the great

moments in history, not great generals, not vice presidents,

it's people, ordinary people,

the same kind of people who the grassroots campaigns that have

been trying to create justice

and equality in this modern age.

Speaking of justice and equality

mlk also said that we must not

have a negative peace which is the absence of tension.

Instead we must work for a positive peace which is the presence of justice.

Thank you. >> I'm pam james.

I live on bourdeaux drive, a

beautifully diverse neighborhood

a friend of mine today mentioned

that there wasn't any reason to take these statues down because most people walk by them and

didn't even notice them anyway.

And I said to her people didn't

notice them if they're white.

And if they're not looking to

those statues as a symbol of

their hate they notice them if

they are down trodden by those statues.

Most of the statues were erected

at the time of jim joe -- jim

crowe in bad faith in order to put people down.

It is time in lexington where one was erected right where

people were enslaved in chains to take these statues down.

It is... There is no time to

waste it is time to do this and time to do it quickly.

Please ask your other committee

that you need to that you need to get permission from to have

an emergency meeting and get this work done quickly so that

our city can heal and move on.

Because it's not about history.

It's about our future. It's about the future of our

whole country and we can start

in this room with your votes. Thank you.

>> danielle and then layman. >> I'm danielle golding.

Thank you for your time here today.

The claim of some that relocat ing these statues is

white washing kentucky's history is absurd.

The very presence and prominence of these statues in the heart of

our city, that is the white wash ing of our history.

There is no easily grand or eye catching memorial that tells the

story of a the human lives trad ed here as slaves.

These statues represent the your fication of the confederacy

and everything it stood for. I'm not proud of our city or

state's history of being divided over the right to enslave

another human.

Nor am I proud of our part in

being one of the busiest slave trading hubs in the south.

But I am proud of the people

here today who have fought for equality and inclusivity.

In this moment, these statues do not tell a story of southern

pride and heritage. They represent the divide in our

community and our country over

how we acknowledge the institutionalized discrimination

that still exist nor fon white americans.

We as a society need to take

ownership of our nation's awful deeds and begin to make atone

ment for it. That begins with the removal of

these statues.

Our state has a complicated part ... Exdeuce me.

Our state has a complicated history in its part of the civil

war. Kentucky has straddled the fence

of the confederacy and slavery vs. The union and equality.

Our city needs to step boldly

and loudly away from that past.

We need to reject these relics of hate and place them in a

museum where they belong or

alternatively the pit downtown.

[Laughter]

I urge you to please vote

unanimously to remove the statue s from the heart of our city.

Thank you for your time.

>> thank you.

You do know your geography.

All right.

I May call some other folks up.

Joel edwards, brian chenoweth,

reverend anthony everett,

representative kelly flood.

>> good afternoon council. Mayor, and others in the room.

My name is lemen. I just want to talk about

history, talk to my recent

relationship with slavery.

Just make it short.

My great, great grandfather was

born in 1849, was a slave, died

in 1939, his granddaughter, my grandmother, 90 years young is

still living.

That's how close I am to slavery .

If you look at history cheapside , the statues were put

there for one and one sole reason.

That was the city's center, it

was put there for systemic

discrimination, racism, hate. Fear.

If these statues stay, I hope you have unanimous support to

have these removed, begin the process with frankfort.

If you do not remove these, this is the way another generation or

two of systemic discrimination, through schools, busing, housing

, psychology, so to make

it short and sweet, most likely

have already done it hunt morgan

statue right now, for protection , during the

construction, there is ply wood up already.

I would make suggestions for the

breckenridge statue go to lowes,

throw up plywood until we can go

to the next step with the

military heritage commission and

until the statues are removed.

And to the commission, there is spiritual that was a civil

rights song, ain't nobody going

to turn me around. Thank you.

>> thank you very much. Joel edwards.

Come ahead. Brian, yes, sir, come ahead.

And reverend everett.

>> I'm reverend chenoweth, the

church I serve, unitarian

universalism is a historic radical faith that has been with

this country since the founding of this country.

And I share that with you not to pat ourselves on the back but to

say to all of you tonight that should you choose to be on the

side of courage, we will be with you.

And should you continue to be afraid that some white national

ists are are going to come down from indiana, we will

be with you.

And I say to that let them come.

Let them come to lexington and

see that black lives matter. Let us show them that black

lives matter, let them come to lexington and see our love for

our city by how we unite against

the forces of hate and let them

come so that they can see we chose the side of courage.

Dear friends.

Be not afraid all the scriptures tell us that no matter what your

religion is. Be not afraid.

Choose the side of courage.

thank you.

>> reverend anthony everett. Methodist church in district 1,

resident of district 12.

I happen to be an at large state human rights commissioner for

the state of kentucky.

I wanted to speak to the spirit.

I am a minister, a christian minister and coming to kentucky

because I'm not originally from

kentucky, in 2008, I was told about cheapside.

I learned about cheapside in the history there and I learned that

this was a slave auction block.

And immediately I saw all the other things that were going on.

I saw the statues that were there and I was disheartened

because I could sense the crying

out of the souls of the people

that died there, the people who

were sold into slavery there at cheapside.

Too often we Miss Out on the

fact that these people were real people at that time and being

real people and having spiritual

component to them, sometimes we just overlook all of that

because of our present day. We have different things that

are going on there so we see the

statue, the statues of these men

who were enslavers who were for the confederacy.

And I say to you today, we can't live with this anymore.

When I see african americans who

are shamed of cheapside, I see african americans who speak to

this issue today and that are

fearful for speaking out, we can't have anymore fear in our

lives because of this issue.

I want to ask to please vote

unanimously against, to get rid

of the statues, I'm sorry.

I get a little passionate here.

but please vote unanimously.

Let's tell the world lexington

is all about who we are, let us

bring another spirit to cheapside.

Thank you.

Representative kelly flood.

>> good, good people. I imagine you are proud of all

of us tonight.

Those who have found the voice

within, whether they've ever

spoken before, came out tonight there are so many good people

out on the street, horns have

been honking, joy is helping

mitigate the fear. That's how we get through most

of the troubles in life. Living with fear and finding the

joy and the gratitude of good neighbors who really have our

backs.

That's how we get through.

So if we keep one another's back

right now and we do this

together, not wholly even understanding where we are going

to end up yet, but we stay

together, our beautiful,

beautiful bluegrass will support

us, take us deep, carry us

through and we, we will be neighbors for the long haul.

Let's do this together.

Thank you.

>> thank you, kelly.

Anita while you are coming up to

the podium, was neata I May call

a few others folks.

Donna holton, seth -- sarah

holton, lawrence cant. A lot has been said tonight and

we need to say a silent prayer

for the family and young lady in charlottesville.

Do you mind doing that? Please guard her beautiful soul

and take it into 11.

Now I just want to say the last thing that I didn't get to say

on tuesday and that was that

there are markers at cheapside behind the old courthouse that

is being renovated into a visit or center.

I have called the mayor's office

and I have been informed that

those markers that depict and

state that slaves were sold

there will be put back on the

property at the visitors center.

Now I am most opposed to that

because I know after tonight

that the statues will be removed

so the people who originally

started the removal of the

statues had said no reference to slavery.

It should all be eradicated so I

see irony there and I see a

strong request from me and from

a lot of citizens that those

markers depicting that slaves

were sold on that property and

now it's going to be a visitors

center that those should not be

put back and that... Yes, and

that they should be put in a

place of history, a museum. There is no doubt in my mind

that the statues will be removed

and it will be taking..., you

know, people who have grown up here you know, we just got ac

customed to it and justed like

a lot of people who came to our

city didn't pay much attention,

but in reference to those

historical markers, I highly recommend because we will be

back to square one if those are

put back to the visitors center.

Some people are arguing that the

statues will not be appropriate

and I agree, saying that would not be very welcoming to people

who come to our community.

Neither would be the people who

work downtown and who have such

deep feeling about slavery, that

it hurts their feelings and yes, if I could take your pain, I

would take it but I cannot, so city officials, please do not

put those historical markers

regarding slavery back on the

property.

Thank you.

>> next is donna and then sarah

holton.

>> I'm going to cede my time to

rabbi david from temple israel. >> thank you, ma'am.

Thank you city council and everyone here.

God of our mothers and fathers,

there are people beyond this room watching and listening and

participating tonight let the

record show, mayor gray, and

city council that this issue is

so deep in the heart of lexingtonians that there are

people gathered on the balcony

outside, there are people gather ed in the foy yay down

stairs, people gathered in% the street to celebrate what we

hope and pray mayor will be an

historic moment there is the

essences of the thing that a great rabbi said who came to him

to play a practical joke.

He said teach me the whole torah all of scripture while I stand

on one foot.

He thinks about it and comes tr ies to think of a way not to

take the bait and he replies

what is hateful to you, do not

do to your neighbor. The that has the whole torah, go

and learn it. That simple essence of the thing

is that these statues are a

perpetual daily, deep hurt to

our african-american brothers and sisters, neighbors, it is

wrong, it is hurtful and the

kentucky way is to remove them

because we do not do that which

is hurtful to our neighbors.

The whole world is watching.

We stand tonight, kentuckians,

lexingtonians, and we defy force s beyond this chamber

seeking to intimidate us over

facebook, over the telephone, or whatever other medium they can

get their hands on to threaten

our lives, to tell us what to do

, to accuse us of erasing history.

They tell us you will not replace us.

They call us pejoratives and racist epitaphs.

Last nightmare you spoke --

monday night you spoke courageously in support of

charlottesville and there were

people there with banners saying my father, my grandfather fought nazis. Let's not bring them here and so

to all of the neo-nazis and to

all of the white supremacists to all tharian nation, to all of

the haters who think that you

can intimidate, take back cheapside and the courageous

people we heard tonight, to think that you can intimidate

white and black and gay and

straight lexingtonianss alike who have come to testify to this

body, to bear witness to history

that we won't be intimidated,

you will not stop us. We defy you.

We defy you in the name of torah we defy you in the name of God.

We defy you in the name of islam

we defy you in the name of christianity.

We defy you in the name of efer basic decent principle that our

mothers and fathers, our grandmothers and grandfathers

taught to us what is hurtful to

your neighbor, what is hurtful

to you, do not do to anybody. Rise up as a unanimous city

council and say we are going to

speak up and stand up and take

the statues down. Thank you, God bless you and God

bless the people of lexington,

kentucky.

>> thank you, rabbi.

Sarah. >> I live in district 2.

I'm going to cede my time to

holly and don't worry, I'll be back later to give you my

thoughts. >> I think you have a microphone

right there. >> I wanted to tell you about my

experience this weekend in charlottesville, virginia. I drove here from louisville

when I found out this city council meeting was happening

because I wanted to let you guys

know that I do not support a

rally being here in louisville, lexington. I've seen a rally in pikeville

kentucky and I think that it can be said that most people do not

want these people in our state

when we arrived on friday, we went downtown to uva and there

were students who were surround

ing the statue yelling

black lives matter and they, the

ult right lit torches and 300 of

them marched on to 30 students who were surrounding them,

mostly women of color. The dean of students was there

with them there were other people there with them as well.

I watched them attempt to burn people in the face.

I watched them pull guns out on us.

I watched them call people names

that we should not ever have to

hear be said. We fear for our lives and I know

for sure that the people of

color that I stood with feared for theirs.

The next morning when we got up and went in to charlottesville

again for another demonstration

which was supposed to start at noon, the permit was from noon

to 5:00, they were already on

the ground at 9:00, three hours before their permit was supposed

to start, already engaging in violence this the street,

already throwing tear gas, pepper spraying people and beat

ing people in the street

before the permit even started. The police officers told them

over and over again that by the commonwealth of virginia this is

declared an unlawful assembly and they would not leave.

So even though they had a permit , and they had requested a

permit, they did not abide their their permit.

Night before the torch March was an unpermitted rally.

They did whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted and I don't

think those are the kind of

people we want allowing to

express their freedom of speech here in kentucky because there

is a difference between freedom

of speech and hate speech and

people actively attempting to be violent towards people who are

there to demonstrate against

them and there will be people who show up to demonstrate against them.

Thank you all.

Also yes, I was part of the car

accident in charlottesville. Car accident terrorist attack,

whatever they decide they want to call it.

>> thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

Next is sarah.

>> you've seeded your time --

you've ceded your time. You've still got three minutes left.

So come ahead. >> thank you.

Nice to see everyone again.

My name is vair holton, I'm in

district 2.

So I've spent all my life in lexington.

I grew up downtown.

My mom and I even spent an

entire summer going on every single historical tour offered

in lexington.

I would say that I am a history buff.

And yet I still had no idea what

those statues on cheapside stood

for until take back cheapside. How can we say these memorials

are telling our history. How can we say we should keep

them up when someone like me, a history buff, didn't even know

the scope of it?

I didn't know that they were

erected not after the war, but

during jim crow,y corrected to tower over and remind people of

color that they were inferior to white people.

How, knowing that history, can we keep them up?

If we want to be a city that welcomes all, then we need to

take them down and I hope that you all vote to remove them.

So thank you.

Have a good day.

Lawrence cant.

Hugh hussein, andrew, sarah. >> my name is larry cant and I

guess there are two of us almost in a row here.

i'm a jew and I grew up with

family members who had tattoos and their family relatives and

friends who had tattoos on their

arms and I grew up with the

knowledge that a lot of my

relatives had been murdered in

eastern europe by nazis and I

saw my grandmother cry on a

daily basis whenever I visited

her about the, did her -- about her dead family members.

It devastated my family and here 's the thing.

When I go visit germany and I

have visited germany, I don't go

into munich or berlin and see

statues of herman gurring, the

general of the lust hanz acor the generals siting in the town

square. I don't have to deal with that

because the germans dealt with that. They tried to deal with their

history to the extent that they can. They have their problems but

they've tried to deal with it

and so should we.

If the children of nazis can deal with it, so can we.

I saw the nazis on television.

I saw the nazis coming and I heard their chants and I heard

the rabbi talk about some of

what they said. Yes, I am scared.

There is a lot of people here%

come can and saying I'm not worried.

You bet I'm worried and I would

be an idiot if I wasn't worried.

I know what they're capable of.

My dead family members, the dead family members of millions of

jews, communists, socialists,

lgbt, blacks, roma, disabled, I

probably have forgotten some who

were slaughtered by nazis 70

years ago and you know, I just

want them to know, yeah, I do

worry but I'm not going to be cowering like a wet noodle

before you.

If you come, I will be around somewhere and I'm not going to

sit back. I am afraid, and I know there

are a lot of people in the jewish community who are fearful

and I know there are african americans and others who are

fearful, but we are not going to

sit back and hide and that's, and I think that's important for

them to know and I think I want to let people in my community

and other communities know, I

will stand there. Never again!

>> thank you larry.

Is anyone here that I've called already.

Larry andrew.

Okay. >> I would just like to say that

many people here today have expressed truthful and compel

ling reasons for removing these statues and I'm here to

add my voice to theirs. I do want to point out these are

not just statues but in fact

monuments and a monument is a

structure that is created to commemorate somebody, not just

to serve as a history lesson. A monument of a person is

someone that we are supposed to

be proud of as a community.

We have these monuments to

reflect their values on to us. These monuments that are here

tell the world that we are proud of these individuals and the

values that the they stood for.

But these individuals stood for slavery. They stood for oppression.

they diswroined a confederacy

that sea seeded from the nation

because of their own ability to

own people as property was being threatened.

As part of that confederacy they helped kill hundreds of

thousands of U.S. Soldiers and civilians. This community is not proud of

those values, not proud of those

individuals. I hope your vote to remove these

statues of these monuments reflect the values of 24

community and once again I want

to repeat that this is just one voice amongst many.

There are many, as somebody said earlier, there are many, many

more outside that reflect these voices and would like to speak

and support this.

Thank you.

>> sarah catsenmire.

I was saying that hand writing is sometimes challenging to read

so forgive me. >> I just want to start by say

ing thank you to the council for serving.

I appreciate your service.

I'm a member of the first district. I'll be short.

In the past six months I have

had many occasion to be ashamed

to be an american, I've had many

occasions to be ashamed to be a kentuckian.

I am hoping that I will have many reasons to be proud of

lexington, one of them would be tonight if you vote to remove

these statues.

Thank you. >> I'm going to call five more -

and five more is the remainder

of those who have signed up to

speak tonight teena -- tina

durbin, marta wood, jessica

domino and clint morris. I'm here to talk to you about

what it means to be an inclusive city.

The first time I ever had interactions with the statues

downtown was 16 years ago when I was first year at translyvania

and some some of you who might remember back then that fall

there was a klan rally downtown

and I was 18 and I was ideal istic and I thought, not

where I live. That's not going to happen.

So I marched downtown.

There were a handful of cowards

with hoods on and there were hundreds of us on the other side

of the street. And we drowned them out and we

drowned the hate out and they went home and we went home but

the sad fact remains that two granite statues that represent

what those members were fighting for, those klan members were

fighting for remained and pre sided over a public space

here in lexington.

We thought we had drowned out

the hate but we have not.

And I thought about this often off and on but I've had the

privilege not to worry about it

every time I was downtown

because of the way the look and who I am, I recognize now that

those statues were not resurrect

ed there for me. They were part of a propaganda

campaign at the turn of the century to tell other members of

our community that the war May

be over, our system of racism and our society based on that

still exists. So those of us who have the

privilege not to think about throws statues when we are at

the farmer's market or when we

are downtown doing other things,

we need to be inclusive city

listen to those who it does affect.

Listen to those who those statue s were erected to send a

message to. Empathy and listening are two

very important elements inclusion. And if we are going to call

ourselves an inclusive city, we really have to think about why

the statues were erects and the impact they're having on our

friends and families and the message this the they were

originally sent to be there and so I would encourage this

counsel to do what I think lexington really is, be an in

dlussive city, be listen to the members of the city who say this is not right.

I do not feel safe, I do not

feel welcomed or values or

supported or respected in those

public spaces because of the message these statues send.

Listen and vote for our community and take down the

statues from cheapside.

Thank you. >> I'm tippa durbin.

Good evening, council. I just want to say that those

statues have stood silently at

cheapside as a reflection of the silent celebration of

institutional racism. It is 2017.

It is time to speak up, stand up

and show up as a voice and presence to those who have been

oppress for far too long. The time has come to do the

right thing at cheapside, please vote to remove the statues in an

effort to create a more equitable and just city for all

our citizens. This is more than just about

diversity and inclusion. It's equity and justice.

Thank you. >> thank you, tina.

Marta. >> I first learned about the

history of cheapside 30 years

ago 1987 when I was a student at translyvania and working as a

cocktail waitres at cheapside bar.

At the time the courthouse was

in between upper street and cheapside and those streets

actually got their names from the slave market.

Upper was where you would buy

your higher priced slaves, men,

physically fit, able people,

women of child bearing potential

cheapside was where one could

purchase elderly, frail,

physically maimed slaves who were injured by their slave hold

ers, their masters and children.

Cheapside park is the site of

atrocious practice of selling

human beings.

We are currently have statues there that honor people who

fought for that institution.

Is that what we want? Let's be honest.

The civil war was not about

southern tradition and

hospitality for sweet tea I. Was

about the ability to buy and

sell human beings.

And john hunt morgan and john breckenridge fought for that

institution.

Do we want to celebrate them?

We have lexingtonians that we

can be celebrating that were abolitionists, educators and

leaders in our local and our national human rights movements.

It's time for lexington to rise

up and for the statues to come down.

Thank you.

>> thank you so much and jessica

domino. >> I'm jessica domino.

I live in the 1st district thank you for listening to all this tonight.

Many people have spoken much more eloquently than I can ever

hope to so I'll just briefly add my voice to support the removal

of the statues at cheapside park history should be respected and

learned from but some historical figures should not be

commemorated or celebrated with

statues or monuments especially

in the city's most prominent gathering place.

These men supported the

institution of slavery through their service in the confederacy

and that should be remembered

and learned from but not celebrated.

Put bluntly if these statues remain in the current place,

lexington sends the message that

our citizens of color are not welcome in the public sphere,

that our city supports white supremacy.

That is not the message we want to send.

It is time for them to go and I

hope that you vote unanimously to make that happen.

>> thank you jessica. All right.

Thanks to everyone who has

spoken tonight let me, what is

next I would like to ask lisa atkins loss President Of bluegrass community foundation

to come up to the podium for a minute.

Earlier in the evening when I made some comments I mentioned

that a generous donor, two

generous donors have offered to

support the movement, the cost

of moving these statues.

The bill clinton community

foundation with leadership the

deborah hencely, former council

member van meter and others had already begun a campaign to

support to raise funds to

support the moving of the re location, the moving of the

statues so lisa, if you would like to share with us a little

bit about that, it might be worth worthwhile.

>> happy to do it.

So at bluegrass community foundation, our mission is to

help all the communities we

serve across the bluegrass and

appalachian kentucky via the

most generous vibrant and equitable plagueses they can be

and we do that in one way by partnering with interested donor s.

So as you described, mayor, a group of folks came to visit us

within the last week who wanted

to set up a charitable fund that

would allow anyone in the community, across the state and

beyond, to donate to help bring

this effort to fruition. And so that is what we do at

bluegrass community foundation.

We have more than 5500 charitable funds that are all

set up by individuals, groups of people, businesses non-profits

that want to actually achieve their charitable aspirations and

this was the aspirations of this group. They wanted to support the other

efforts that are going on to

help remove and relocate those confederate memorials so this

care thattable fund has been established. They were chaiting until this

evening to really kick off this

effort with bigger but -- with vigor but what we know is that

back on March are 15, in partnership with the city, with

leadership lexington, with the fayette county public schools,

we held a one-day event called

on the table, more than 11,000 people from across the city came

together over a meal to talk

about the quality of life in lexington.

Hundreds and hundreds of issues were discussed.

But among the top three was

equity and inclusion. And actually we have a report

that is hot off the press that I

have for all of you and you can

actually download that online and it talks about what people

believe about our quality of life.

More than 97% of lexingtonians think we have a great to

excellent quality of life and they really want to contribute.

They want to volunteer. They want to donate.

They want to get involved in issues and often times when

there is something like this, one way people want to

contribute is they want to give.

So what this charitable fund will do is it will allow folks

to give whether it's $5 or $50 ,000 or any amount they wish

to help support these efforts bluegrass community foundations

is a nationally certified donation, every donation is

acknowledged and accounted for subject to audit and we make

sure every grant that goes out of one of our charitable funds

is used exclusively for the charitable purpose. The purpose of fund do is what

ou described.

It is to help relocate these

memorials and to not do that at

public expense but through the generosity of private

individuals who want to make that happen.

>> thank you lisa. Thank you very much.

>> I will leave these copies. >> thank you so much.

I have been notified that there

is one more speaker we would

like to former council member

jock wiggington.

>> friends, romans... Just kidding.

The evening is indeed spent. I know what it is to be in the

chair that you are in and to realize this is going to be a

long one.

I know what it is to be in front of a city that is or dealing

with a 50-50 issue.

And I know what it is to be where you are.

First of all let me do a couple

of things right off the bat.

Mayor, I am in minnesota minding my business watching cnn and I

hear the mayor of lexington is

going to talk on cnn.

I had no idea, but I wanted you to know that I was proud.

I was happy.

I give you kudos.

I acknowledge what you did.

I acknowledge the breath, the

spirit, the courage, the timing,

the savvy to do what was done

and I want to say you are appreciated.

I come from district 2, my council member is joe smith and

I didn't have to call my council member on this.

I knew. The reality of it is that you

are on the cusp or crossroads

between the perpetuation of

hypocrisy or the promotion of

hope, the hypocrisy is obvious.

You hear people say well, we

can't wait for the south to rise again.

My question is what does that mean? Atlanta is not under siege.

You can go anywhere in mississippi, alabama or the south you want to go to.

The only thing I find different

is peel like me.

When people waive a -- wave a flag in front much you they

drive away but when your city

has monuments that are stuck in concrete, bronze towering over

you, to say that forever we will

remember a time in which you

weren't who you are today, that

spirit is something we over come

but the overcoming is now not for individuals who look blessed

by the sun like I do but for a city who has finally arrived.

I'm prayerful, hopeful, elated in the midst of all that has

gone on in our nation, our city

has the opportunity to be the beaming light that says you know what?

This is a different day and if we can do it here in lexington,

you can do it anywhere. So kudos to my council.

I love you and I'm wishing more than the best for you.

I'm praying for you. Do the right thing.

It's right here. It's right now and you are

sitting for such a time as this. [Applause]

>> thank you, jock. I want to call now on council

member james brown for a motion. >> council member brown.

>> thank you, mayor. I move to suspend the rules to

take resolution number 41 out of

order and give it its first

reading.

>> to separate it and put it in from 41... All right.

We'll do that.

We don't want to be difficult.

Make a motion to...

>> you want me to read it begun again. >> yes, sir.

>> I move to suspend the rules

to take resolution 41 out of

order and give it its first reading.

>> second. >> is there a second? >> second.

>> we have a motion and we have a second. Motion by council member brown

second by council member farmer. Is there any discussion on the

motion? Council member stinnett. >> I want to go back.

I didn't want to interrupt our

last speaker, council member wiggington.

That was the shortest time you ever spoke. We appreciate you.

I remember!

Mayor, I know Miss Atkins was up

here saying we have some donors.

Is there a target so, is there

an estimate what we need yet?

>> we've had, as I said, we have

had general raws donors who are

equipped for this work to look

at the site, look at the statues they have done it before.

Two firms duncan machinery and prometheus foundry and they

believe the work can be done and they can... They will, at no

charge, free of charge, make those movements.

There May be some additional costs. There usually are on projects

like this, I've been around them a lot.

And that's what the community

foundation has stepped up for.

>> excellent. I just wanted poo

emto know -- I wanted people to

know that it is not going to be $400,000. We have a mayor who already has

the information and I applaud

you for getting the two firms to get them to do it without

charging us.

[Applause]

>> without further discussion

then I'll ask for the vote. No wait a minute.

Is if thirst reading.

-- is if first reading sch vote on the motion.

All those in favor of the motion council member brown's motion

please indicate by saying aye.

Opposed no.

Motion carries. Unanimously.

[Applause]

Now.

First reading, goodness gracious it's already, it's been...

Someone said it has been a long night but a good night.

Go ahead. Madam Clerk.

Resolution of the fayette county expressing support of the john

hunt morgan and john c.

Breckenridge statues in lexington kentucky requesting the mayor present a

recommendation to the council concerning the appropriate

location within 30 days of the passage of this resolution.

>> thank you, Madam Dlerk. Council member evans.

>> thank you, mayor.

It is my honor to move to suspend the rules and give

second reading to resolution

number 419. Motion and second. Any discussion on the motion?

All right. Hearing none, Madam Clerk please

call the role. Hoif hive call the roll.

Read it again.

And then vote on it. Vote on the suspension.

All those in favor suspending

the rules. Thank you.

Opposed no. Ayes have it.

Please read second reading.

Resolution of the fayette county expressing support of the john hunt morgan and john c. Breckenridge statues in

lexington kentucky requesting the mayor present a recommendation to the council concerning the appropriate

location within 30 days of the

passage of this resolution.

>> thank you, mad Madam Clerk. Motion to approve.

Second. Council member henson second by

council member evans. Any discussion?

Please council members sign up.

All right, ready to vote.

Madam Clerk please call the roll

council member henson.

>> thank you, mayor.

I just wanted to comment how

proud I am of our city and so

many people being here and I think very passionate people,

it's a late night, I'm assuming

a lot of you guys have to work tomorrow.

But I can't thank you enough. I can't believe the turnout.

I saw the people on the streets it warms my heart really to

think that we are such a caring

community. There is a lot of things I could

say, you know, and I do worry

that we might have some violence

or something like that, but. That's not what lexington is.

I think there are some here, I won't be naive and think there are not. But I also want to say that I believe completely in our

lexington police department, that they will prepare as much as they possibly can and I was also, I told the mayor earlier

that we should discourage any counterprotesting because I

really think if we have these

groups come in and nobody shows

up, they're going to look really

sill #e.

But that's what I would like to see happen but again that's

probably being knew -- probably being naive, too.

Thank you for being here and

hanging around to speak. Thank you.

Thank you, 345eur. >> council member council member henson.

Council member farmer. >> thank you, mayor.

And I know there is a three- second delay and everybody

here has spoken. What I want to use that three-

second delay and ask those that are not in this room to let

us hear your voices.

One, two, three. [Applause]

, the winds of change have many voices tonight and in fact

they're still going.

I need to echo some of what council member henson said.

What a privilege to be on the

front row tonight. >> I will ask the clerk to

please call the roll.

>> yes. >> Mr. Fred brown. >> yes. >> Ms. Bledsoe. >> yes. >> Mr. Fred brown. >> yes. >> Mr. James brown. >> yes. >> Ms. Evans. >> yes. >> Mr. Farmer. >> yes, ma'am.

>> Mr. Gibbs. >> yes.

>> Ms. Henson. >> yes. >> vice mayor kay.

>> yes. >> Ms. Lamb. >> yes, ma'am.

>> Mr. Moloney.

>> yes. >> Ms. Mossoti. >> yes. >> Ms. Plomin.

>> yes. >> Ms. Scutchfield. >> yes. >> Mr. Smith. >> yes

>> Mr. Stinnett. >> yes ma'am.

[Cheers and applause]

[Cheers and applause]

Let me say that the vote reflect

s passage of the motion and we all know that we still

have work to do. All right.

We May now want to, is it worth ... Good were the council,

we May take a little break.

We have some more work to do and thank you all very much.

Let's take a five minute break.