Cordele’s Confederate statue still standing after petition to be removed

CORDELE, Ga. – Over a year ago, 8,000 Cordele residents petitioned to remove this Confederate monument you see behind me, but as you can still see it’s still standing.

“If anyone is upset about the things that don’t get done in the City of Cordele, blame it on Commissioner Reaves, Commissioner Shepherd, Commissioner Rainey and City Manager Angela Reading,” said Joshua Deriso, Cordele City Chairman.

Citizens of Cordele have been waiting for over a year for it to be removed.

“A majority of the people in Cordele wants that statue to come down,” said Deriso.

The statue still stands after some city officials say they fear resistance from some citizens.

“The city attorney and I don’t agree on a lot of things but he had said time and time again that you guys can relocate however you are likely to face litigation,” Deriso.

Chairman Deriso says the one constant in the prolonged movement of the statue is racism.

“What you really have is Commissioner Rainey is someone that doesn’t understand their racist and promote white supremacy ideas,” said Deriso.

Deriso says he does not know when the statue will be removed but he hopes to see change in the future.

“When we sit on that commission and what has been allowed to happen was people like Rainey think he knows best,” said Deriso.

The city manager was unavailable to comment on her part of this monument still being here.

Cameron Sanders reporting.

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