Racial injustice protesters: Remove Confederate soldier's historic statue from Louisville

"Mayor Fischer, take it down! Mayor Fischer, take it down!"

 A chorus of about 150 repeatedly chanted that phrase while gathered Monday night in the Cherokee Triangle in front of a bronze likeness of Civil War officer John B. Castleman.

The protesters demanded the removal of the statue, erected in 1913, of Castleman atop a horse.

Longtime civil rights activist Bob Cunningham quipped that he'd like to make a deal with the city to remove the rider but keep the horse, which he respected.

Read this:Police presence 'disturbing and antagonistic' at rally, group says 

Carol Kraemer, a co-founder of the Louisville chapter of SURJ, Showing Up for Racial Justice, helped organize the rally following the killing of an anti-racism protester during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

James Fields Jr., 20, who was raised in Kentucky, has been held on suspicion of second-degree murder and other charges after a Dodge Challenger rammed into pedestrians gathered to protest the white supremacists.

During Monday's anti-racism rally in the Highlands, several wore Black Lives Matter shirts or held signs such as "Stop Racist Attacks" and "More Than a Statue." SURJ organizers and participants called out the names of several black residents fatally shot by police in Louisville and across the country.

"When black people are killed by police, it is in an atmosphere where we celebrate these symbols of slavery that condone the killing of black people, the deportation of immigrant people, the attacks on Muslim people and anti-Semitism in our communities," Kraemer said, drawing applause from the crowd of mostly white teens, men and women.

Background:Remove Cherokee Triangle statue of Confederate officer, group says

Related: Cherokee Triangle statue of Confederate officer vandalized

"This is not just about a statue," Kraemer said. "This is about institutionalized racism."

Cunningham, who is black, said he was surprised and touched to see so many "white folk."

Kraemer, who is white, said she frequently drove by the statue without knowing its origin. She said she learned about Castleman's role in the confederacy – which she equated to slavery and racism – only after black residents brought it up.

"That's white privilege," she said. "Now that we know, we can take a stand and take it down."

A man in the crowd shouted, "Pick up a history book."

More than a dozen Louisville Metro Police officers were at the protest, quietly remaining on the periphery. They didn't have long sticks, sometimes used to control mobs, that were on display during the weekend anti-violence rallies. Some called the sticks "bats" and complained they were an unnecessary sign of aggression during peaceful protests. 

Lamont Washington, a police spokesman, said he wouldn't specify why so many officers were at Monday's rally or officers' role there.

There weren't any organized counter-protesters hoisting signs or shouting support for the statue.

One middle-aged man, who said he lived nearby, complained to some reporters that most of the crowd came to the neighborhood from other parts of the city to try and remove a part of history.  An elderly man, sitting alone in the back of the crowd, told a news photographer that the statue isn't tied to the confederacy and instead honors Castleman's civil service.

Castleman was a longtime president of the city's Board of Park Commissioners.

Consider this: Learn more about John Castleman and his contributions to Louisville

Carla Wallace, a founding member of SURJ said the Castleman is among the "longstanding symbols of racism."

Area resident Jeremy White, a Spalding University math professor, watched the crowd gathering from his balcony, unsure his opinion on the controversy. He said he has begun researching Castleman because of the protest. 

"I don't known much about it," he said. "It's a tricky situation. Unfortunately, history is full of bad stuff."

During the weekend, someone defaced the 15-foot bronze statue with orange paint. 

"I hate to ever see vandalism," White said, saying protests and discussions are the better ways to convey opinions.

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On Sunday, Mayor Greg Fischer asked the public art commission to review the city's art inventory and develop a list of those potentially tied to racism and slavery. He said the "review is in preparation for a community conversation about their display."

The mayor isn't advocating for any particular statue to be removed and that the plan could include adding context to pieces with a "complicated history,"  Fischer spokesman Chris Poynter said.

At the urging of SURJ leaders, one protester called Fischer's office during the rally and left a message as the crowd again shouted, "Mayor Fischer, take it down!"

Castleman's statue was built several years before Castleman's death to recognize his contributions to the neighborhood. He is wearing equestrian clothes in the statue because he helped found the American Saddlebred Horse Association in 1891.

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Castleman also was a major in the Confederate army and later a brigadier general in the U.S. Army. After the Civil War, Castleman graduated from the University of Louisville Law School; half of the land he purchased for his estate was later used to develop the Tyler Park neighborhood. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.

According to the historical marker, Castleman "led an attempt in 1864 to free Confederate prisoners at Camp Morton. He was imprisoned until the end of the war, exiled, then pardoned by President (Andrew) Johnson."

According to a recent op-ed in the Courier-Journal, Castleman once saw a group of African Americans playing tennis in Cherokee Park and responded by segregating the tennis courts.

“These people are citizens,” he said in a 1916 Courier-Journal article. “The same right that induces our liberal provision for their separate education should impel us to provide for them separate recreation grounds.”

Reporter Beth Warren can be reached at bwarren@courier-journal.com or 502-582-7164.