Equestrian statue of John Brown Gordon at the Georgia State Capitol

The equestrian statue of John Brown Gordon stands on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia. The monument honors Gordon, a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War who later became a politician in post-Reconstruction Georgia. He was recognized as the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia and supported the institution of slavery as well as the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

Since 2015, the statue has received criticism for Gordon's racist views and associations with the Confederacy, with some calling for its removal. In 2020, during the George Floyd protests, many called for the statue's removal, prompting a trending hashtag on Twitter. In June 2020, Bob Trammell, the minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives, sent a letter to Governor Brian Kemp asking him to remove the statue, stating its nexus to hate is overwhelming and its presence is both divisive and offensive.

The statue was dedicated in 1907 and was designed by Solon Borglum. It depicts Gordon as an elderly man in his Confederate uniform on his warhorse, Marye. A letter from 44 descendants of Gordon also called for the removal of the statue, stating that its primary purpose was to celebrate and mythologize the white supremacists of the Confederacy.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons