When I was a child, we would drive past the Castleman statue on the way to visit relatives during Sunday afternoons. I always looked for “The Man on the Horse” on Sundays. This was a special time for me, looking for that man and that horse.
No one spoke of a Civil War on those trips. The man did not look like a soldier, I liked that the man was dressed like my father and I grew to love that horse,
I am much older now and I was very disheartened when the statue was defiled. I had to wonder, do my childhood memories not count?
I learned that the man was captured, imprisoned, sentenced to hang, and then pardoned. He went on to accomplish much for Louisville and was praised by leaders in the Black community for his efforts.
It seems to me that I have been taught when people complete their sentences, they are supposed to be accepted back into society. They are not expected to be splashed with paint and dragged from their horse.
What else will change? I am wondering when George Washington’s face will be removed from the dollar bill and Mount Rushmore. Will Washington suffer the same fate as the statues blown up by the Taliban?
I grew up in Camp Taylor and to this day, I had not stopped to look up Civil War Generals and connect them with the streets I walked on for many years in my neighborhood and my hometown. I wonder if they will change. They are now named Crittenden. Breckinridge, Brook, Gardner, Jackson, Lee, and Taylor.
I have loyalty to my memories. No matter what happens to the Castleman monument, it will always stand where I last saw it. A demolition crew may remove it and haul it away along with its paint splatters but no amount of storing away can change past history. Once upon a time, citizens gave credit to the good works that a “Man on a Horse” did accomplish later in his life.
And once upon a time a small child walked along Lee Street, Crittenden Drive, and Taylor Avenue not thinking that the pavement under her feet might have been named for Civil War Generals. She would join her family and smile as they drove past the “Man on a Horse”. Times may change but those memories I intend to retain.