Vote sought on removing Tampa Confederate statue

TAMPA — The debate on Tampa’s Confederate monument isn’t over. Hillsborough County Commissioner Les Miller will again ask his colleagues to remove the statue from outside the old county courthouse at the board’s meeting on July 19, he said Wednesday.

Commissioners decided 4-3 last month to keep the monument in downtown Tampa, where it has stood since 1932. In the weeks since, Miller said he has seen a “major groundswell of people who want it removed” and he hopes at least one commissioner’s opinion has been swayed.

Since the vote, local elected officials, activists, faith leaders and other residents held a protest and news conference in front of the monument calling for commissioners to reconsider.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and the city council have come out strongly against the monument, which sits in the heart of Tampa but on county property. City leaders are concerned a memorial to the Confederacy blunts Tampa’s efforts to position itself as a diverse and inclusive community, just as the city is gaining momentum.

They worried that people around the country wouldn’t differentiate that the county made the decision, not Tampa officials.

“We’ll see if we can get a commissioner to change their heart and mind,” Miller said. “More and more people have come forth and said this has to come out this has to be removed.”

The monument, called Memoria in Aeterna, was built in 1911 with funds raised by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The marble structure depicts two Confederate soldiers, one marching into battle and another, uniform tattered, walking home, with an obelisk in between.

In the dedication speech, the keynote speaker called AfricanAmericans an “ignorant and inferior race” and said a president that appoints black citizens to federal positions “a traitor to the AngloSaxon race.”

Miller will propose returning the statue to the Daughters of the Confederacy for placement on private land.