The Caddo Parish Courthouse in Shreveport, Louisiana, July 12, 2023. A Caddo commissioner says a new ordinance he's proposed will forego any future controversies like the one that eventually saw a monument outside the parish courthouse depicting Confederate generals removed. Commissioner Ken Epperson has proposed a change to the parish and other markers honoring those who have declared war against the United States or been deemed traitors.
It would do the same when concerning felons. "You always put things in place where you can minimize chaos in the future. That's what I think intelligent, civilized countries and governments should do," Epperson said.
Epperson's ordinance would forbid "memorials, monuments, statues, plaques, flags, etc., erected on Caddo Parish property, or displayed in any buildings owned by the Parish of Caddo, of individuals, organizations, groups, entities that have declared war against the United States of America, or have been found guilty of being traitors against the United States of America." The same kinds of honors also would be forbidden when depicting "individuals that have been found guilty of a felony.
" Epperson said the ordinance was written with the controversy surrounding the monument which once stood outside the Caddo Parish Courthouse. Erected in the early 1900s by the Daughters of the Confederacy, the monument included busts of four Confederate generals and a Confederate soldier atop a central pillar. The monument joined other depictions of Confederates around the country, including in New Orleans where a number of statues eventually were removed, as part of a wider conversation about racial justice in the United States.
Though there was a long legal fight, the Daughters eventually agreed to allow the monument's relocation, which occurred in 2022. The Caddo Parish Commission voted in 2017 to remove the monument. The parish allocated more than $780,000 to have the monument moved to private property in DeSoto Parish.
"Had we had an ordinance like this in place some years ago, we wouldn't have had the debacle that we had about the removal of it," Epperson said. "I'm pretty sure we spent well over $1 million behind that and about 20 years of wasted time." Epperson said keeping Confederate monuments off parish property is the right thing to do.
"The Confederacy was an outright rebellion against the United States of America, plain and simple," Epperson said. "That was a symbol of what has passed. Even the flag was a controversy.
" But Epperson's ordinance would have another effect left less explicit in the ordinance with its own potential for controversy. The ordinance is worded without exceptions when it comes to felony convictions, meaning monuments to people from former President Donald Trump to Malcom X to Mooringsport native Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter would be forbidden on parish property. Though no such proposals have been made, markers honoring former President Donald Trump — now a convicted felon — would be forbidden from parish property.
Epperson's ordinance likewise would forbid monuments and memorials honoring the wrongfully or unjustly convicted. The same would be true for people for whom an argument could be made that their convictions are only part of their story, such as Malcom X or Ledbetter, of whom there is a statue on City of Shreveport property on the Texas Street sidewalk. The Caddo Parish Commission voted unanimously Monday afternoon to advance the ordinance to their Thursday meeting agenda.
The ordinance would require two votes to become law. Caddo Parish Commissioner Chris Kracman said at Monday's meeting he plans to offer friendly amendments at to the proposed ordinance and will do so at an upcoming meeting..
