Confederate statue dismantled for Greenwood Cemetery move
As the sun rose Tuesday over Lake Eola Park, a crane slowly hoisted the concrete soldier known as “Johnny Reb” and gingerly lowered it onto a flatbed truck.
After 100 years of standing watch over swans and picnics, the statue was bound for its new home: Greenwood Cemetery.
Workers for the city began dismantling the nearly 9-ton concrete and marble memorial to fallen Confederate soldiers about 6 a.m. Tuesday, a month after Mayor Buddy Dyer decided to relocate the relic that some consider a monument to slavery and white supremacy.
As they took apart the base, they discovered a time capsule inside. Dyer spokeswoman Cassandra Lafser said the box would be stored safely and opened sometime in the future.
Though defenders of the statue flooded a City
Council meeting in May, there was no sign of discord Tuesday.
As a crew clad in neon safety vests, including one in an American flagthemed hard hat, went about their work, people jogged or walked dogs past the temporary security fencing, some pausing to watch or snap photos with their phones. Nearby, a yoga class was getting started.
Officials did not reveal in advance that the statue would be moved Tuesday, which was likely a factor in the muted response.
Brennen Riley, 35, said the statue’s removal was overdue. He said the Confederacy “supported racism and slavery, and that’s something that shouldn’t be glorified on government property.”
“A lot of people argue it’s history and their heritage. I agree, it is history and heritage,” Riley said. “But what side of history is it on — the good side or the bad side of history?”
But Orlando native Ces Lawton, 65, called it “a crime.”
“It’s honoring all those that died,” Lawton said. “In its time, it wasn’t considered an affront to anybody, and now, all of a sudden, it’s an affront. It’s just sad. We can’t rewrite history. It is what it is.”
Commissioned by a local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the statue was first erected in 1911 on Main Street — now Magnolia Avenue — near the old Orange County courthouse, before being moved in 1917 to the park.
The statue has faced scrutiny in recent years, as cities across the South have grappled with whether to allow monuments to the Civil War to remain on display in the public square.
Organize Now launched a petition drive in 2015, and former Orlando Sentinel journalist David Porter demanded the statue’s removal again last month, prompting the heated City Council meeting at which Dyer announced his plans to move it.
Defenders of the relic argue it doesn’t glorify slavery, but rather honors soldiers who died and reflects an important part of the city’s past.
The statue will be rebuilt in the section of Greenwood Cemetery set aside for Confederate veterans, a process the city said could take six weeks. The city-owned cemetery has had grave sites for each side of the Civil War since the 1890s.
There are 37 Confederate dead interred in the Confederate area, Lafser said. The Union plot is already home to a monument erected by a Union veterans’ association.
Don Price, sexton for the cemetery, said the statue will be kept in storage for about three weeks. In the meantime, the city will need to gather the necessary permits to rebuild it and determine how large of a foundation it will need, he said.
“This is the Confederate section of the cemetery so, historically, it belongs here,” Price said. “We’re the keeper of the history.”
He said he’s not concerned that the controversy that surrounded the statue at Lake Eola will follow it to Greenwood.
“If we have protesters, that’s OK,” he said. “I have 120 acres. You can protest all you want.”