Court of appeals backs city of Memphis in lawsuit over Confederate statues sale

Phillip Jackson

Memphis Commercial Appeal

A court of appeals in Nashville ruled in favor of the city of Memphis on the sale of Confederate monuments, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans was seeking injunctive relief from Davidson County Chancery Court. Documents show the court found that the parks and monuments were no longer public property and were not protected under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2016.

In 2017, Memphis City Council approved the sale of Health Sciences Park and Fourth Bluff Park for $1,000 each to Memphis Greenspace, a nonprofit that had been formed by Shelby County Commissioner Van Turner.

The decision to sell the parks to Memphis Greenspace gave the city the right to legally remove the statues.

Turner said he was happy about the ruling but is waiting to see if the Sons of Confederate Veterans will try to take the matter to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Turner said he is looking to have the matter resolved quickly.

“It confirms the stance that once we took ownership of the parks, the parks were private property, and therefore we were able to remove the Confederate monuments," Turner said in an interview Tuesday.

"This is the second ruling where I pretty much said, the case brought by them lacked the jurisdiction," said Turner.

Brett Schutt takes a picture of the removed statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis in Fourth Bluff Park in Memphis on Dec. 21, 2017. The city sold two public parks containing Confederate monuments to a non-profit Dec. 20, 2017, in a massive, months-in-the-planning operation to take the statues down.

Lee Millar, spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the group is "definitely" looking to take the matter to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The statues in the parks included monuments of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, President Jefferson Davis, and Capt. J. Harvey Mathes, which are now stored offsite.