NEWS RELEASE

February 14, 2018

For Immediate Release

City Council Approves Changes to Confederate Memorial

SAVANNAH, GA (February 14, 2018) — The City of Savannah Mayor and Council voted today to approve the recommendations from the Confederate Memorial Task Force.

The Confederate Memorial Task Force, composed of preservationists, historians, and administrators of local monument and marker programs, was convened in October 2017 to provide simple and sensible recommendations to City Council that address ways to make the Forsyth Park Confederate Memorial more representative of Savannah's community while also preserving Savannah's unique history.

Now that this resolution has been passed, the City Manager and staff will meet to begin implementation. No timeline has been set.

Below are the eight recommendations:

• Rename from "Confederate Monument" to "Civil War Memorial"
• Preserve all historical material on the memorial
• Install a new bronze plaque on the blank horizontal panel on the south side of hte memorial with this text: "This memorial was originally erected in 1875 to the Confederate dead, redesigned in 1879, and rededicated in 2018 to all the dead of the American Civil War."
• Do not alter the blank vertical panel on the south side of the memorial
• Relocate the McLaws and Bartow monuments to Laurel Grove North Cemetery
• Do not replace the McLaws and Bartow monuments at the memorial site
• Preserve the fence around the memorial in the current elliptical shape
• The community expands the story of the Civil War, its causes, and its effects throughout Savannah, other than at the Forsyth Park Confederate Memorial site

A news release covering the Task Force recommendations is available at http://www.savannahga.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1757