Bell County, TX (FOX 44) – Bell County Commissioner Louie Minor is getting ready to launch a fundraiser to remove the Confederate statue in front of the Bell County Courthouse to a new location.

Minor wants to relocate this statue because of the confederacy’s history of not representing all races.

“Over a hundred years this statue has stood guard perpetuating racism here in the county,” said Minor.

Minor says he has consistently proposed relocating the statue to his fellow commissioners – with little response.

In 2020, the commissioners voted to have a general referendum on the situation for public input. However, the plan has been on halt. The State Legislature hasn’t picked up this situation to allow the Bell County community to vote on the future of the statue.

In the meantime, Minor emphasized no taxpayer dollars will go towards relocating the statue.

“It was private funds to erect it there so we’ll use private funds to move it,” said Minor.

For Shirley Fleming, President of the Bell County Coalition of Black Democrats, the statue relocation effort is a deeply personal matter.

“It hurts me every time I pass that statue,” said Fleming. “Every black person that passes this statue, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren, will be passing that statue from now on if we don’t remove that statue.”

Minor says the fundraiser goal for removal and relocation of the statue will cost $150,000.

The fundraiser will kick off Monday, February 20th with a protest taking place at the Bell County Courthouse.

“We want everybody there to be peaceful and just to let the commissioners know we want that statue down and whatever it takes for us to do it, we will do it,” said Fleming.

We reached out to Bell County judge David Blackburn to speak on this situation, but he was unavailable at the time to comment.

Click here for more information on the fundraiser.