Kentucky city to remove statue of anti-immigrant editor

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – The statue of a mid-19th century Kentucky newspaper editor known for writing anti-immigration and anti-Catholic editorials will be removed from outside a library.

The Courier Journal reports the city of Louisville announced Monday that the statue of George Dennison Prentice outside the city library’s main branch will be moved to a storage facility Tuesday.

Prentice’s statue was vandalized last August, following the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and again in February.

Mayor Greg Fischer said the Louisville Journal founder pushed a message “that led to the 1855 Bloody Monday riot where at least 22 people were killed.” He asserted libraries foster “education, inclusiveness and compassion.”

The fate of the statue is yet undetermined. The city says Prentice’s burial place, Cave Hill Cemetery, declined to take the statue.