Dallas Landmark Commission votes to take down Confederate memorial near convention center

DALLAS - The Dallas Landmark Commission voted Monday to approve the removal of the Confederate war memorial in Pioneer Park next to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

The Landmark Commission approved the request by the city council to disassemble the monument and put it in storage in a 10-5 vote.

Councilmembers argued the monument was moved to the cemetery in 1961, long after the cemetery’s historically significant period of 1849-1921. Their resolution calls it “a noncontributing structure for the historic overlay district.”

The lone black member of the Landmark Commission said the monuments were offensive and needed to go.

“The men up there on memorial, none of them are Dallasites. Stonewall Jackson Jefferson Davis never spent a day in Dallas, these are men who fought to keep my ancestors in chains,” said commissioner Donald Payton.

The city told the Landmark Commission that it will only use a qualified bidder to remove the monument in sections, and then place it in storage until a buyer who will properly contextualize it can be found.

It will cost Dallas an estimated $480,000 to remove the memorial. A date for taking down the memorial has not been set.