Tennessee school to remove statue of Confederate soldier

Published 12:51 pm Monday, June 8, 2020

NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee school says it will remove the statue of Confederate soldier Sam Davis from its campus within a week.

Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville says on Twitter that the decision was made because the school strives to be an inclusive community, not one that is, or is perceived as, racist or supportive of values that demean or marginalize others.

Davis, a native of Tennessee, was captured by Union soldiers in the 1860s and hanged for refusing to reveal the name of a spy.

“It was placed on the campus because of Sam Davis’s pre-Civil War connection to one of MBA’s predecessor schools and the attributes of loyalty and friendship associated with his life and story,” the school said of the statue Thursday on Twitter. “We recognize the ways in which this story and Sam Davis’s association with the Confederacy have become increasingly troubling, particularly as perspectives on the past have shifted.”

Other Confederate symbols have come down in the South amid protests over George Floyd’s death 12 days ago at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Montgomery Bell Academy is a private school for boys in 7th through 12th grade.