COVINGTON, Ga. — The Georgia division of a national group seeking to preserve early 20th-century Confederate Civil War monuments wants its members to boycott a Covington crane company hired to remove statues in two nearby towns.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans today publicly called for boycotts of Covington-based Roper & Sons crane company for participating in the “shameful” removal of monuments in McDonough July 28 and Conyers June 30.
It also called for a boycott of Atlanta-based Superior Rigging & Erecting Co. for removing statues in Decatur and Athens in late June.
“The Sons of Confederate Veterans call upon all its 33,862 members, their families, supporters, as well as all other Veterans’ organizations and memorial associations to cease doing any form of business with these crane/rigging companies,” the group stated in a message on its website.
“These companies have shown the sacrifices these veterans made is of no value when compared to a quick buck. All is for sale. They have sold themselves out to these liberal municipalities and county governments and removed Georgia’s Veterans Monument in the dark of night.
“Therefore, we ask all Construction Professionals, Facility Managers, Maintenance Managers, Contractors and Vendors to remove Superior Rigging and Roper & Sons, LLC from your bid list, contractor list and request for pricing list.
“We also encourage you to mandate and discourage your colleagues, contractors, subcontractors, and vendors from using Superior Rigging and Roper & Sons from doing any work whatsoever.”
It said the boycott “is no reflection on the hard-working men and women who are the operators, riggers, shop mechanics and drivers for these crane companies.”
“It is unfortunate that these crane companies have placed their employees in this position just to make a fast buck,” according to the group’s statement.
“Many of these Monuments were erected by mothers, wives, sisters and daughters to honor their lost loved ones. Many of these fine employees are veterans themselves or descendants of veterans. We do not hold them responsible for the greedy actions of their bosses.”
The Sons group says it is “the oldest hereditary organization for male descendants of Confederate soldiers” and serves as “a historical, patriotic heritage organization dedicated to ensuring that a true history of the 1861-1865 period” of the American Civil War “is preserved,” its website states.
Roper & Sons removed statues in Conyers and McDonough and was asked to bid on removal of the Covington statue before a judge halted its removal to hear arguments on an injunction the Sons of Confederate Veterans filed in July in Newton County Superior Court.
A ruling could come soon on the injunction against the Newton County Board of Commissioners' July action to order the statue's removal from a park in the middle of the Covington Square.
Roper & Sons did not immediately reply to a request for comment about today's call for a boycott.
However, the company said in a statement in July on its Facebook page that, “We are a small, family-owned and operated crane company that is great at what we do.
“We don't want to take the statue down but are doing so at the request of the county commissioners elected by the people of Henry County. We want the statue taken care of and resurrected. We will carefully take the statue down and protect it from being destroyed.”
Owner Matt Roper said in a July 28 video posted on the company’s public Facebook page that the company’s removal of the Henry County statue was “the only chance that that statue is going to get saved and re-erected elsewhere” rather than torn down as statue opponents have done nationwide.
“We’re not the ones who chose to do this,” Roper said in the video. “The county commissioners chose to do this. Y’all elected those people.”
The company removed the statue the same day the video was posted.
