Is the Confederate Monument Area Really Owned By Caddo Parish?
There has been a HUGE debate for years over who owns the land the Confederate Monument in Downtown Shreveport sits on. The Parish believes they own the land. The Daughters of the Confederacy believe they are the rightful heirs.
Yesterday, attorney John Settle filed a lawsuit in Caddo Court and is asking a judge to decide who owns the land. The Parish claims they own the land due to frontier rights. The opposition claims that patch of land belongs to the family of Larkin Edwards. Settle told KTBS that before there is a fight about the statue, the issue of ownership of the land should be decided first.
But, in the not so distant past, it appears that the Daughters of the Confederacy has lost this fight once already. Back in 2011, the Caddo Commission wanted the Confederate Flag removed from the area on which the Confederate Monument sits. After much discussion and argument, it was determined then that the parish owned the land all along, and not the Daughters of the Confederacy.
From that fight, it was determined that that the deed itself never actually went to the Daughters of the Confederacy. And that discovery is what allowed the Caddo Parish Commission to removed the Confederate flag at that time.
In fact, during the removal of the flag, the Commission actually worked hand in hand with the Daughters "when taking down the flag and pole, because the 'Daughters' group owned them, just not the land."
So does this settle the argument? Is a lawsuit and court case necessary? I guess we'll see what happens in the near future.