Lakeland leaders to discuss Confederate statue in park

LAKELAND — Commissioners will hold a public, evening meeting on the fate of the statue of the Confederate soldier standing in the center of Munn Park sometime before mid-October, they agreed Monday.

A specific date has not been set.

Through several public speakers during Monday’s meeting, it was clear commissioners would prefer the public furor to pass on an issue they have shown little interest in debating outside Commissioner Don Selvage’s calls to re-weigh the issue.

In the past two years, during debates about the propriety of Confederate symbols in southern civic life, the commission has declined to change the status quo despite opposing calls either to move the Munn Park monument or to make it harder to remove for future commissions.

Selvage said the commission ultimately owes the public an unambiguous decision.

Aside from Commissioner Jim Malless, who said earlier he supported moving the statue to another location, the members continued to hold their opinions close. He said he has come to see it as a symbol of oppression erected during an era a half-century after the Civil War’s end when black Americans’ rights were systematically oppressed by the ruling majority.

Ashley Troutman, a protégé of former Mayor Gow Fields and rising star in Lakeland’s civic circles, proposed keeping the statue in place but adding contextual monuments of equal stature and dignity that would celebrate the bravery of black Americans who suffered under slavery and systemic oppression.

Other groups who have contributed to the fabric of the city and the nation could likewise be added.

“If we intertwine these stories,” Troutman said, “we would realize a more beautiful mosaic that is a full American story, a full Lakeland story.”

Mayor Howard Wiggs said he appreciated Troutman’s wisdom and suggested it would be a good starting point for the upcoming discussion.