Dallas City Council Votes To Remove Confederate Monument

The Dallas City Council voted on Wednesday to remove the Confederate War Memorial in the city’s Pioneer Park Cemetery.

The vote was 11 to 4 to take down the monument, which was erected in 1896 and is the city’s oldest public monument, according to CBS Dallas-Fort Worth.

Removing the statue is expected to cost about $480,000, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

City staff said they have recruited artist Lauren Wood, who has experience with such work, to come up with a plan to “re-envision” the monument site in a new context.

Removing the statue isn’t a done deal: The Dallas Landmark Commission needs to review and approve the removal. However, since the monument and the location in the Pioneer Cemetery are both historic, the plan can be appealed to the Dallas Plan Commission, which would bring the monumental issue back to the City Council for a final decision, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

In 2017, the council voted 13 to 1 to remove a Robert E. Lee statue from public view.