JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A plane was spotted flying over TIAA Bank Field on Sunday morning displaying a banner that read 'put monuments back' with a Confederate flag. The banner flew over the stadium ahead of the Jacksonville Jaguars vs Baltimore Ravens game.
The plane with the banner was sponsored by a group called Save Southern Heritage, according to their press release.
"In Jacksonville, Mayor Lenny Curry, in the middle of the night on June 9, 2020, desecrated the historic Hemming Plaza Cenotaph by removing the elements of the memorial in knee jerk cancel culture reaction to the George Floyd death," the statement went on to to say.
"As I’ve said before, there is no place for hate of any kind in our City. My position on monuments remains clear, I have allocated money for removal and empowered city council to take action."
In the middle of the night in June, 2020, a city crew tore down a confederate statue at James Weldon Johnson Park.
"And the others in this city will be removed as well," Curry promised at a press conference the next day.
However, there hasn't been a ton of progress since Curry's promise, with the latest effort to establish a timeline and budget for removing the statues shot down at a city council meeting in June.
The plane flew over TIAA Bank while football fans were tailgating ahead of the Jaguars game.
Kirk Lyons, spokesperson for Save Southern Heritage, called the banner a "Thanksgiving gift to the people of these cities who are suffering under these cancel culture tyrants". The group's statement said the flyover is part of a larger campaign.
Wells Todd of Take 'em Down Jax, a group pushing to see the monuments removed, shared the organization's thoughts on the message in a statement:
"Speeches at the time of the erection of these statues make clear that they represent the upholding of the philosophy of white supremacy, the support for slavery, segregation and racism."
“Let the healing begin," said the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville in a statement. “The white racist sign in the sky is just another stunning example of why we must act quickly to remove the confederate monuments. We need Truth and Unity to guide us past racial hatred and painful memories of the city’s history. Truth is the roadmap to healing and reconciliation. We cannot ignore the lynching, enslavement and the terror that monuments represent. We must move forward and not backwards! Let the healing begin!”