Petition To Remove Seattle Confederate Memorial Circulating

SEATTLE, WA - There's a petition circulating - again - to remove a Confederate monument located inside Seattle's Lake View Cemetery. The petition asks Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and the City Council to remove the monument, however the cemetery is on private land.

The petition was created on the Change.org website, and as of Wednesday afternoon had close to 3,000 signatures. Petitions on that site are symbolic and not legally binding in any way.

Murray released a statement Wednesday agreeing that the monument should be removed, but said his hands are tied because of where it's located.

“We must remove statues and flags that represent this country’s abhorrent history of slavery and oppression based on the color of people’s skin. It is the right thing to do. During this troubling time when neo-Nazis and white power groups are escalating their racist activity, Seattle needs to join with cities and towns across the country who are sending a strong message by taking these archaic symbols down," Murray said.

“My office has called the cemetery operator to express our concerns regarding the monument. As we continue our ongoing proactive work to be an inclusive and welcoming community, we must also join the fight against the mainstreaming of hateful and despicable far-right political ideology.”

The Confederate memorial was erected at Lake View - which is just north of Volunteer Park and is where Bruce Lee is buried - in 1926. The Daughters of the Confederacy group placed the memorial at the ceremony and had it carved from rock mined in Stone Mountain, Ga., which is where in 1915 the Ku Klux Klan had its second revival.

"Erected in 1926 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, it was built to memorialize and commemorate the hate that ripped our country in two. It seeks to remind everyone that - despite losing a war - that White Supremacy is still alive and revered as a positive trait for (white) Americans to have. The fact that it still stands is a testament to how desperately White people clench to their race-based power," reads the introduction to the petition.

On Wednesday afternoon, Lake View had closed its gates due to threats against the monument. The cemetery is run by the Lake View Cemetery Association, Inc., which is the registered taxpayer. According to King County records, the cemetery is owned by a woman named Marguerite Rochester, who appears to have died before 2004. Lake View Cemetery Association, Inc. is controlled by a board of governors including George Nemeth Jr., J. Mason III, Chris Aggerholm, and Henry Chapin III, according to state records.

A petition was started in 2015 to remove the Confederate monument after Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in an attempt to trigger a race war.

The Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery is located just north of Lake View across East Howe Street. That city-owned cemetery is a resting place and memorial for Union troops from the Civil War.

Image via Joe Mabel/Creative Commons