JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Removal of confederate monuments is a topic that has been debated here in Jacksonville for years and now Mayor Donna Deegan has included $500,000 in her budget for Confederate Monument Removal, Relocation, Remaining & Renaming, following the step of her predecessor.
The Women of the Southland statue in Springfield Park is one of several that local activists have demanded be removed. It depicts a woman reading to two children and has overlooked this Park in Springfield for over a century.
A promise was made to remove the statue by former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry during protests in the summer of 2020. Three years later, leaders with ‘Take em Down Jax’ are still protesting.
“That statue, it brings a different message to black men in the south, because white women were used so frequently to cause harm and death to black men who were fighting for their freedom," Todd Wells, organizer with Take ‘Em Down Jax, said.
The monument was included on a list of 11 Civil War related monuments and markers on city property targeted for removal.
Only 1 statue on the list has been removed; a statue of a Confederate soldier atop an obelisk in James Weldon Johnson Park.
While organizers with Take ‘Em Down Jax are applauding the removal, leaders with Save Southern Heritage believe the city is going too far.
“Those monuments belong to the people and unless you ask the people themselves in a referendum whether you want them to stand or not, that’s up to the them and everyone else including elected officials should keep their hands off them," Kirk D Lyons, member of Save Southern Heritage Florida, said.
Curry set aside $500,000 the city’s past budget for taking down Confederate monuments in parks. But with a new mayor and city council taking office. many are wondering what happens now to the 10 Confederate monuments and markers left standing and is it still an issue the city is willing to tackle?
“Before I got involved in this issue, I would walk by the minute minutes, and I never really thought about I mean, they're just a vestige from the past. But then, as I began to ask my black friends of what they thought about it, I found the common thread was that it sent them a message that this is still not an inclusive city," Matt Carlucci Sr., at-large council member group 4, said.
Matt Carlucci Sr. introduced a bill last year to create a timeline for the removal of the monument in Springfield park. The bill failed with 6 to 13.
After taking office, Mayor Donna Deegan pledged to work with city council to bring the monuments down.
“I think it’s really, really important that we value everybody’s humanity in this city, not that we discount history, we can take that monument and put it into another place and contextualize it but it shouldn’t been siting in the middle of a neighborhood where people have to remind all the time that their humanity was not respected," Mayor Deegan said.
She included the $500,000 for the Confederate Monument Removal, Relocation, Remaining & Renaming in her proposed budget.
“I think I’m not alone in believing that it’s not good for business in this city to continue to have this n the national headlines that we refused to get rid of our confederate monuments, if so many other southern cities have been able to do this, then there’s just no reason that we shouldn’t be able to do it as well," Mayor Deegan said.
Carlucci says he could re-introduce legislation to use the funding after the budget is approved.
As of right now none of the half-a million-dollar in funding has been used for confederate monument removal.