Confederate Monument Removed From Howard County Courthouse Grounds

ELLICOTT CITY, MD - A monument to Confederate soldiers has been removed from the grounds of the Howard County Circuit Courthouse, County Executive Allan Kittleman announced Tuesday morning.

“It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that memorials such as this are hurtful to many residents in our community and elsewhere,” Kittleman said in a statement. “Given these feelings and the tragedy in Charlottesville, I felt compelled to remove this memorial from public property."

He said that he filed a request with the Historic Preservation Commission to take down the Confederate memorial Aug. 16, which required a five-day review period.

Nobody objected to the monument's removal during the review, Kittleman told WBAL.

Howard County's action came in the wake of a deadly riot Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacists rallied against the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, an issue former slave-holding areas have been grappling with more than 150 years after the end of the Civil War.

The memorial in Ellicott City, which was dedicated in 1948, will be placed in a local museum, officials said.

“We cannot and should not erase the past. We must learn from it,” Kittleman said. “A museum offers context for us and for future generations to better understand our shared history.”

"On a local level, we are very frustrated and growing angrier by the day at the continued presence of a confederate monument on the grounds of our courthouse, a place that should be a symbol of justice and equality for all," the council members said in a joint statement on Aug. 18. "From our perspective, if we couldn't remove the monument immediately, there is no reason we can't at the very least cover it up while we work through whatever process some believe we need to follow."

By Tuesday morning, the monument had been removed.

"To have it in a museum affirms that it belongs in the past," the council members said, "remembered in proper context with other heinous ideas that humanity has discarded on its way to a better future."

A judicial official was connected to the monument, officials said.

"Howard County Circuit Court Judge William Henry Forsythe Jr., whose father’s name is on the memorial, appears to have been responsible for accepting and placing the memorial on the grounds of the courthouse," according to a statement from the county that cited Maryland Historical Trust. "No county officials played a role in the dedication," the statement said.

The inscription on the monument says that it was dedicated "by the Howard County Confederate Monument Association in honor of these brave men who fought so courageously in the Confederate army." A list of soldiers' names follows.

Photo of monument removal by Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman.