Robin Terrazas remembers briefly speaking with Mayor Ron Nirenberg the night before City Council voted 10-1 to remove the 118-year-old Confederate Monument from Travis Park.
It was the only interaction that Terrazas – president of the Albert Sidney Johnston chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy – had with the mayor after repeated attempts to start a dialogue on the future of the group’s property: the monument.
“I said let’s work together on this,” Terrazas said. “He looked me in the eye, he shook my hand, and he said ‘yes, we will include you.’ And he never contacted me. No one from the City ever did.”
...Now the chapter is suing the City of San Antonio and 10 of its City Council members in federal court for its decision to remove the monument from Travis Park in September. The group argues that its rights under the Fifth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution were violated when the City removed the statue overnight, failing to give them due process.
...The statue was originally erected in 1899 by the Barnard E. Bee chapter of the Confederacy group for $3,000. The suit claims that a City ordinance dating back to March 27, 1899 gave the chapter perpetuity over the land to be used for their monument. In 1972, the Barnard E. Bee chapter closed due to declining membership, and transferred their property and interests to the Albert Sidney Johnston chapter.
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