It’s been nearly five years since Confederate statues of John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge were removed from the front lawn of Lexington’s Old Courthouse. The move followed legal battles that were ultimately settled by then Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear. Within hours of the decision, the statues were down.
The charge was led by Russell Allen and WUKY’s DeBraun Thomas, members of Take Back Cheapside, the group that had been working to have the sculptures moved from the former site of the Cheapside slave auction block, one of the largest in the South.
Thomas was the first to get word from then Lexington Mayor Jim Gray on October 17th of 2017.
“Mayor Gray says ‘Hey, are you sitting down?’ Thomas said “No. He (Gray) said ‘ok we’ll you’ll probably will want to sit down.’ So I sit down and he (Gray) says ‘uh, just letting you know that the statues are coming down tonight.’
Elated, Thomas phoned Allen. “Like I could not get the words out. I was just going a hundred miles a minute.” And he (Allen) had to say like ‘Stop! Stop talking! Like just chill! Take a deep breath and tell me what you’re trying to say!’ And I was like the statues are coming down tonight! So we had really 30 minutes of notice ahead of the statues coming down. But being down there was a really really great feeling getting to watch that with the rest of our community.”
But the road to making history was not smooth. Russell and Thomas received death threats and a group of Neo Nazi’s from Ohio were reportedly in Lexington, looking for the pair. Police were monitoring the situation and security was put in place. It’s a journey that Thomas said led to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and something that he will see played out in real time in the documentary.
“It’s really hard for me when I think about just kind of what we went through and pairing that with the fact that no one really understands what we went through.”DeBraun Thomas, Take Back Cheapside
So how did the documentary come about? In 2017 Elijah McKenzie, a filmmaker out of Louisville reached out to Russell and Thomas about a piece he was producing that focused on Confederate monuments.
“He had kind of met with a couple of academics in Lexington and in Louisville to getting the academic side of things and then you know at that point in time we were in the midst of working on the removal of the monuments here.” Thomas said, “So this short story ended up turning into a full length documentary feature as Elijah just kind of kept coming back to Lexington for supplemental things and every time he came back something else was happening. So he was here the night of the city council meeting. He was here the night the statues were removed. He was here for several of our events of the Reimagine Cheapside phase.”
The film does come with a warning that some content may be triggering. Thomas says he hopes the piece clears up misconceptions about “how things happened and the order that they happened” and that the audience is left with a feeling of hope.
At the end of the day, like, we are all human beings and we all carry this with us. So you know, there is a really human aspect at this in terms of yes, we are people who were facilitators in making this happen but it came at a real cost.”
But Thomas says he wouldn’t change a thing, taking strength from his upbringing. He recalled a conversation with his mom after the mission he and Allen began had been accomplished.
“She was like ‘I kept thinking, like, where did all this come from?’ And I told her. I was like YOU! I, you know, I was like you took me to all kinds of meetings when I was a kid. Like, I was on, you essentially on the battle grounds of what she was trying to accomplish. So you know, I just got a front you seat to that and you know, copy and paste I guess.”
Thomas hasn’t seen the final cut of the documentary. He tells me he knows it will be tough to watch, but believes it will bring the journey full circle.
“This screening, yeah it will be traumatic for me but I think that having an opportunity for this story to be shared in front of a lot of people in our community, it’s a good feeling. And I think that this might be the chance that Russ and I finally get to really just sit down and just kind of get to take it all in.”
As for his mom who lives in California and won’t be able to attend the screening, Thomas knows she will be there in spirit.
“You know just knowing that I at least did something that she is proud of is a, is a really great feeling.”
The “Taking Cheapside” shows Saturday night at 6:30 at the Lyric Theatre and will be followed with a question and answer session.
