As the Mid-Shore community begins a weekend of celebration of Juneteenth, the national commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, it seemed like the appropriate time to focus on the controversial “Talbot Boys” Confederate memorial that sits on the Talbot County Courthouse lawn. While the arguments for maintaining or moving the statue are now increasingly well-known to Spy readers, for the first time, we have reached out to the two organizations who have either taken the lead in preserving it where it stands now (Preserve Talbot History) or moving it (Move the Monument Coalition) to a less controversial location to provide short summaries of each group’s position.
We began today with Move the Monument Coalition leadership team members Ridgely Ochs and Jess Taylor. In their interview with the Spy, Ridgely and Jess talk about their motivation in getting involved, the group’s plans to hold a rally to move the statue in Easton this Saturday, and their support of the recent NAACP/ACLU lawsuit against the Talbot County Council as part of their organization’s strategy to relocate the Talbot Boys from the Courthouse lawn.
On Thursday, the Spy will publish our interview with David Montgomery, president of Preserve Talbot History, to discuss his organization’s opposition to removing the Talbot Boys from its current position.
This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Move the Monument Coalition and its Juneteenth Rally please go here.
Brenda Fike says
“There’s a large part of the population that has been very patient for generations.” Precisely!