- Toby Sells
- Confederate heritage groups gathered in Memphis Park Saturday to re-dedicate the statue of Jefferson Davis.
It turns out Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell did not proclaim this past Saturday to be “Jefferson Davis Day,” not personally anyway.
Confederate heritage groups gathered in Memphis Park Saturday to re-dedicate the statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. During the event, a member of one of the groups read a proclamation from Luttrell’s office declaring Saturday, Oct. 18 as “Jefferson Davis Day in Shelby County.”
Steve Shular, the public affairs officer for Shelby County, said the language for the proclamation was sent to the mayor’s office by one of the heritage groups. It was drafted into an official proclamation by a member of the mayor’s staff. That staffer used a stamp of Luttrell’s signature to officially “sign” the proclamation.
“So, the mayor was totally unaware that there had been a proclamation for Jefferson Davis Day,” Shular said. “Anytime something like this occurs, it gives us pause to think and to reexamine how we do business, to ensure that we’re doing it the right and proper way. We want to ensure everything we’re doing from the mayor’s office is going to help and encourage groups in the community and certainly not do anything that might divide them.”
To that end, Shular said the mayor’s office will tighten its checks and balance system on proclamations “to ensure whatever the mayor is proclaiming is in keeping with good taste and also is a legitimate way to better the community. Certainly any issue that might be offensive to people, the mayor certainly would not be behind that.”
The proclamation from Lutrell’s office that was read Saturday said Davis “established an example of greatness for future generations through his leadership and public service.” It also called Davis a “great leader who played such a integral role in Americans, state and local history.”
Shular said the mayor’s office receives “literally hundreds” of requests for proclamations each week for birthdays, anniversaries, and other events in the community. The signature stamp is used, he said, to “speed along the process” and meet the deadlines of those asking for proclamations.
“In this instance, that proclamation did not get to the mayor for him to look at it personally,” Shular said. “Again, it gives us an opportunity to reexamine how we do business and we’ll certainly do better.”
