TEXARKANA, Texas - About 40 members of a newly formed group known as "Save the Mothers' Monument" gathered downtown for eight hours, Saturday, to collect signatures for keeping a downtown Confederate monument in place.
Mary Coker, spokesperson for the group, said the organization, which formed about two months ago, has already collected about 5,000 signatures online, but she added that the group needed a more formal petition to deliver to Texarkana, Texas City Hall - one which would include each signatory's address.
Back in June, the Texarkana Area Women Veterans Outreach Group conducted a protest at the monument site, demanding that the monument, which stands at 500 North State Line Avenue - as it has since 1918, be moved to a museum-type setting, where it can be observed with historical context.
Coker said since the monument is standing in commemoration to the mothers of Confederate soldiers, those soldiers would also include American Indians as well as at least 300 free black soldiers who joined the Confederate Army.
"This monument is also meant to be a tribute to the mothers those American Indians and free black soldiers also fought for the south," Coker said. She added that the reason the Daughters of the Confederacy called for having the memorial built was to make sure these soldiers of all races, would be memorialized since a lot of them never received a proper burial.
Local resident Mike Lusk said he believed the monument should stay in place to serve as a memorial to those who didn't fight to retain slavery, but instead, were fighting to defend their homes and their families.
Local resident Angela Good said the monument has a very important place in history, because it's actually more about mothers then it is the Confederacy.
"The monument shows a mother standing in the shadow someone who could have possibly been her child," Good said. "Many of the soldiers, at that time, were no more than 15 or 16 years old. This monument pays honor to these mothers who were left grieving over the loss of the young sons."
Coker said the group managed to collect more than 500 signatures by early Saturday evening.