The year 1915 was a pivotal year for Bell County. The city of Temple was in the midst of an enormous growth spurt: streets were being paved, neighborhoods to the north and south sprung up, notable structures – homes, hospitals and churches -- were going up.  Temple banker Jim Ferguson was elected governor. The city of Belton, devastated by the 1913 flood had finally completed rebuilding. Belton also opened a new high school that year and installed what the Belton Journal called “modern toilets” in its other schools. The city of Killeen, then a modest agricultural shipping point, was experiencing an economic boom because crop prices were the highest in recent years. 

Also by 1915, Temple’s African American formed the Negro Business League, uniting their economic and political interests to help better their community.  Belton’s and Temple’s rising black middle-class was making great strides in Bell County economically, educationally and socially. Bell County’s three-day Emancipation Day celebrations (now called Juneteenth) grew larger from 1900 to 1915, attracting thousands of freedmen and their descendants who traveled to Bell County. 

That same year, Will Stanley, an African-American man, was lynched in Temple by a vigilante mob. He was not the only one. Bell County had many, many more. 

By 1915, every Southern state, including Texas, had effectively destroyed the gains that blacks had made since 1865. Every time whites took one step forward, Bell County’s African American citizens were pushed two steps back. 

At the exact same time, the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a statue on the Belton Courthouse square to honor those who fought and were defeated in an insurrection against our government. 

The presence of a Confederate statue on the courthouse square clearly told African-American citizens, “Don’t forget who’s in charge here.” 

These recent weeks have brought our county and our nation to a crossroads. How long will Bell County continue to honor the losers from a 19^th-century rebellion with a 20^th-century symbol of oppression after witnessing 21^st-century murders and protests? 

Times have changed. 

Let us ask the Bell County commissioners and the good citizens of Bell County: “Whose memories do we keep? Who has the right to remember? Who do we serve by retaining antiquated symbols that hurt others?”

Clouded memories are tricky. Where are the reminders of the real horrors and gore of war?  Where are the stories of the bitter 1850s sectionalism that sliced the country like a meat cleaver and that divides us now? Where are the explanations of Emancipation’s importance?  Where are the stories of African-American laborers who built our cities, dug our water lines, cleaned our houses, cooked our meals? 

By keeping the Confederate statue on public grounds, Bell County continues to sanitize violence and slavery at the expense of those who helped build this county. The statue’s presence allows us to push “rightful justice” to history’s dusty bunkers.

Today’s verbiage about “heritage” is only superficial blather about quixotic yesterdays. Let’s get down to what our country is today. Let’s talk about lifting up those who are disenfranchised; let’s listen intently to their stories. Then, let’s do something. Let’s heed the Holy Scriptures: “Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 16:20)

In historical memory is found the greatest wisdom, if only we have the courage to act on that wisdom. 

Ask our County Commissioners: Who do you serve? Do you serve only white people? Do you serve only the well-monied property owners? Do you serve only the people with the shrillest voices? Or do you serve everyone in your district, whether they voted for you or not? Are you willing to remove the Confederate statue from the public square for the good of ALL citizens of Bell County? Or are you too afraid to follow your conscience? Do you really care how the presence of this statue hurts others? 

Obsessing over this hunk of metal and granite on public grounds detracts from the uncomfortable truths about our human failings and the real cost of injustice. 

These past few weeks have changed our nation. It’s time, County Commissioners. It’s time.