SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Historical texts have been added to the Confederate monument that sits in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse.
Caddo Parish commissioners approved adding the texts to the temporary walls around the monument in December, including the Gettysburg Address, God Bless America, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, The Bill of Rights and Lift Every Voice and Sing.
“All of this contentious has been going on behind this monument, lets put something up that reminds us all that we are Americans. and that we should be unified and we must be one. one nation under God with liberty and just for all,” said Commissioner Ken Epperson, who led the push for the addition of the text.
Work on adding the text is expected to be completed on Thursday.
Historical texts have been added to the Confederate monument that sits in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse, including the Gettysburg Address, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, The Bill of Rights and Lift Every Voice and Sing. (Photo: KTAL/KMSS Staff) 
Historical texts have been added to the Confederate monument that sits in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse, including the Gettysburg Address, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, The Bill of Rights and Lift Every Voice and Sing. (Photo: KTAL/KMSS Staff) 
Historical texts have been added to the Confederate monument that sits in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse, including the Gettysburg Address, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, The Bill of Rights and Lift Every Voice and Sing. (Photo: KTAL/KMSS Staff) 
Historical texts have been added to the Confederate monument that sits in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse, including the Gettysburg Address, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, The Bill of Rights and Lift Every Voice and Sing. (Photo: KTAL/KMSS Staff) 
Historical texts have been added to the Confederate monument that sits in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse, including the Gettysburg Address, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, The Bill of Rights and Lift Every Voice and Sing. (Photo: KTAL/KMSS Staff) 
Historical texts have been added to the Confederate monument that sits in front of the Caddo Parish courthouse, including the Gettysburg Address, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America, The Bill of Rights and Lift Every Voice and Sing. (Photo: KTAL/KMSS Staff)
The box was built around the monument in July in order to diffuse racial tensions that arose amid protests and counter-protests over the summer, even as a multi-year legal battle over its removal drew to a close in June with an agreement between the Caddo Parish Commission and the United Daughters of the Confederacy to move it to the Pleasant Hill Battlefield site in south De Soto Parish.
The messages and quotes will remain until the monument is relocated to the Pleasant Hill Battlefield in South DeSoto Parish later this year.