Boulder now on courthouse lawn
New ‘Confederate Rock’ move
May 27, 1975

The Columbia Daily Tribune, Kevin Moran

Boone County’s gypsy “Confederate Rock” has found another new home – this time 
on the lawn of the Boone County Courthouse.

Probably the most mobile – and controversial – hunk of granite in the Midwest, 
the memorial to Boone Countians who fought for the South in the Civil War 
appeared on the courthouse lawn Friday afternoon.

A crew from the Columbia Public Works Department quietly deposited the large 
boulder on the courthouse lawn after moving it from Nifong Park in southeast 
Columbia.

The rock originally stood at the intersection of Conley Avenue and Ninth Street 
on the University of Missouri campus, but was removed from that spot last Aug. 
16, after UMC’s Legion of Black Collegians charged it was a symbol of continuing 
racism on the campus.

The rock was donated to the city in 1935 by the local chapter of the United 
Daughters of the Confederacy. 

City workers took the rock in August to the city park complex at the old 
Columbia Municipal Airport.  From there, the wandering rock was moved to an even 
more obscure spot at Nifong Park.

City officials last December asked the county to take the albatross rock off the 
city’s neck.

The county court held a public hearing and decided to accept, after all who 
attended the hearing spoke in favor of the county taking the rock.

At the time of the rock’s first move, the black collegians said they weren’t 
satisfied.  Spokesman Marvin Thompson demanded the rock be removed from public 
view entirely.

Thompson and other black students didn’t attend the county court’s public 
hearing on the location for the rock.

City Manager Terry Novak said the rock was removed from its campus location 
mainly because the city didn’t want a public monument damaged.

The Daughters of the Confederacy at first refused to become embroiled in the 
controversy over the rock.  At the public hearing, however, Columbia attorney 
Scott Orr spoke for the group and asked the court to treat the rock like any 
memorial to men who died in battle.

The court heeded Orr’s plea, although the county judges were unaware this 
morning the rock had been moved to its new – and possibly final – resting place.