Isabel Duarte-Gray (Cambridge, MA) - July 22, 2020

Dear Judge Imes:

Your recent statements to WKMS occasion me to write this letter. You asked “who are we to judge the people of 1900” and implored opponents of Murray’s Confederate Monument to “understand the purpose and intents of the Ku Klux Klan,” since the connection between the Klan and the United Daughters of the Confederacy is easily proved.

This question is beneath the dignity of our citizens. We are all qualified to judge the perpetrators of racist lynch mobs and church bombings. Any student of American history understands that due process is critical to a functioning democracy. An elected judge, of all people, should condemn vigilantism, racial violence, and mob justice—due process, or the process of trial by jury and appeal, is neither a new invention, nor the product of a contemporary mindset. The Magna Carta and 17th C. British Common Law reforms both provide the basis of American due process. Both contributed to the invention of human rights, and both developed to oppose tyranny.

The argument made in our Fiscal Court hearing to preserve the statue relied on assertions of birthright, that one is only truly “from” Murray, and has a say in its continuance, after several generations of residency. Such nativism is a fundamentally monarchic position: only those born to power may wield power. Are these the values of our city? Do we discount public service, kindness, and neighborliness?

I hope you will reconsider your stance on, apparently, the Klan, the UDC, and the rights of so many Murray citizens to enjoy public land without a daily reminder that they were once property.

Isabel Duarte-Gray

Cambridge, Massachusetts

The foregoing was a "Letter to the Editor" submitted to and printed by the Murray Ledger & Times. The entry has not been edited and is presented as it was printed on the date listed with the entry.

From June 5, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021, the Murray Ledger & Times printed 50 "Letters to the Editor" related to Murray's Confederate monument. Those 50 letters were written by 38 different people; and of those individuals, 22 were in favor of relocating the monument, 11 wrote in support of it remaining in its present location and five did not take a clear stance on either side. The letter above is part of a collection curated by The Sentinel to provide an overview of the sentiments expressed.