Confederate statue no longer welcome
After a two-year fight, Edmund Kirby Smith’s future caretakers will have to find a new home for the bronzed Jim Crowera relic of the Florida-born military leader.
Lake County commissioners officially rejected the statue Tuesday.
Commission Chairman Leslie Campione authored the board’s one-page letter to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis citing the general’s lack of a “direct connection” to Lake County for the decision that the Lake County Historical Courthouse “is not an appropriate location for this particular artifact.” The letter also cited the role the historic courthouse played in the “Groveland Four” tragedy and “the division and strife created in our community over the decision to place the Smith statue in this particular location.”
The board voted, 4-1, to adopt its new stand against giving shelter to the statue with commissioner Josh Blake casting the lone no vote.
Bob Grenier, who championed the idea of bringing the statue to Tavares, has been silent about the board’s latest decision. He once called the statue “our
King Tut.”
“The point of all of this is unity,” Campione said, thanking Mae Hazelton and the Rev. Mike Watkins, Black activists, for their persistence.
Hazelton recalled speaking before the board seven or eight times over the last two years, always with prepared remarks, in opposition of the statue.
“Today I speak from my heart,” she said. “It’s the right decision …. Thank you.”
The Kirby Smith statue, housed at the U.S. Capitol since 1922, is among 100 figures contributed by the 50 states, and one of two representing Florida.
Florida’s other figure is Apalachicola inventor John Gorrie, who pioneered the process of refrigeration and air conditioning.
The general’s statue will be evicted from its perch to clear room for a figure of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, an African-American educator and civil rights activist.
Her statue is being sculpted in Italy.
Before the board voted, state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said she would work with state Sen. Dennis Baxley, ROcala, on a solution to find the statue a home.
Commissioner Sean Parks called Tuesday “a historic day for the county.”
“The question now is: ‘What can we do next?‘ ” he asked.
Outspoken advocates of the statue have stayed quiet as national protests arose in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
None spoke up Tuesday. Floyd, 46, a Black man, died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. The killing led to the firing of four officers including Derek Chauvin, who was filmed pinning Floyd to the ground with his knee. All face criminal charges.