Jacksonville to decide fate of Confederate monuments

Board will have public meetings to explore options

JACKSONVILLE — City council members in Jacksonville have set a goal to decide by next summer whether to remove a Confederate monument from a local park or let it remain in place.

They’ll also be deciding about other Confederate monuments in the city, The Florida Times-Union reported.

“We take control of the monument issue, establish a plan, and put this all behind us,” City Council member Aaron Bowman said Thursday during a workshop to update the board’s five-year strategic plan.

The council voted Nov. 9 to withdraw a proposal by Mayor Lenny Curry that would have set aside some $1.3 million to remove the “Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy” monument that has been in Springfield Park since 1915.

In June 2020, the Republican mayor ordered the removal of one of the city’s most prominent monuments — a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier that had been in a downtown park for more than 100 years. The move came weeks after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and on the heels of marches and other calls for social justice.

“The Confederate monument is gone. And the others in this city will be removed as well,” Curry said that day. “We hear your voices. We have heard your voices.”

Councilman Bowman said that said that if the board’s plan is finalized by summer, costs associated with removing the monument would be included in the city’s 2022-23 budget. He said this is the last budget that would be voted on by the current roster of council members before the 2023 elections.

The council will consider various options such as removing the monument, relocating it to another site, renaming it, or having it remain as is.

Other monuments under consideration for removal include the Confederate bandstand in the Old City Cemetery and markers designating historic sites in the Civil War.

The board will have public meetings to decide the format will be for exploring alternatives.

BOB SELF/THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION VIA AP A statue honoring the Women of the Confederacy sits in Springfield’s Confederate Park on July 2, 2020, in Jacksonville. The statue been wrapped up and is out of view with plans for it to be removed as part of the city’s plans to remove several Confederate Monuments and a number of historic markers related to the Civil War. A proposal to remove the Confederate monument has been withdrawn after a heated debate that ended with the audience being ordered out of City Council chambers.