The task force appointed by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings in August to make recommendations on the future of Confederate monuments and symbols in the city has published their findings.
In a document released Friday, the task force said the Robert E. Lee statue, which was removed from Lee Park earlier this month, and the Confederate Monument in Pioneer Cemetery, should be preserved and placed in a museum or educational site in North Texas with the proper context of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the 'Lost Cause' mythology and the 'Jim Crow' era.
The task force also recommended that Lee Park, where the Lee Statue was installed and where the podium remains, be renamed -- this was done on Sept. 22 when the park was renamed Oak Lawn Park. The task force also recommended the removal of the Confederate Cemetery name as well as other city parks with Confederate names; they recommended placeholder names of historical abolitionists, enslaved or human rights leaders be used.
Several streets in Dallas also bear Confederate names, and the task force recommended those, too, be changed -- specifically Gano, Lee, Cabell, Stonewall and Beauregard -- within 90 days.
In Fair Park, where there are numerous symbols and references to the Confederate States of America, the task force recommended signage and other language be added to give the artwork proper context.
The task force also recommended the city erect a marker at Akard and Main streets memorializing Allen Brooks, who was lynched.
