We, the undersigned, call for swift removal of the General Lloyd Tilghman statue from Lang Park in Paducah. This monument should not exist and tax-paying Paducahans should not be funding its upkeep in a public park.

In addition to removal, we call for the creation of a plan in conjunction with Black community leaders to replace this Confederate memorial with a memorial dedicated to Paducahans who have fought for Black lives.

Some claim statues such as that of Tilghman are necessary for us to remember our history, good and bad. The Tilghman memorial, however, claims it is a “[h]eroic statue of the Confederate[.]” (“Monuments and Memorials”) Was it heroic to fight for the Confederacy? Was it heroic to turn to war to, primarily, protect the ability of Americans to own Black slaves?

This statue was not erected to help Paducahans remember the atrocities of the Civil War and the racism this country is founded upon. It was erected to glorify a Confederate general and the Confederate cause, a racist cause, on the whole. Some claim this is false--that the Confederate cause was about state’s rights or tariffs--but this is rejected both by contemporary historians and historic Confederate soldiers. (Kuriwaki et al.) The Confederate cause was to protect the way of life of white Southerners which was built upon slavery.

We cannot pretend that the effects of slavery and racism will be eliminated by monument removal. We also cannot pretend that the Civil War will somehow be forgotten by monument removal. 

Our hope is that this monument’s replacement can be a step toward a city that does not call the Confederate cause “heroic” and does not glorify the Confederacy in any way. Our hope is to add momentum to larger conversations of how we can all work to create a better Paducah.

Works Cited:

“Monuments and Memorials.” City of Paducah, paducahky.gov/monuments-and-memorials.

Kuriwaki, Shiro; Huff, Connor; Hall, Andrew B. (2019). "Wealth, Slaveownership, and Fighting for the Confederacy: An Empirical Study of the American Civil War”. American Political Science Review.