Florida Mayor Fulfills Promise to Remove Remains of Confederate Statue

Almost three years after the removal of a statue of a Confederate soldier in Jacksonville, Florida, the city has removed the remains of the monument.

The obelisk was across from the front entrance of Jacksonville City Hall, as reported by The Florida Times-Union. For 125 years, the Confederate monument stood in James Weldon Johnson Park until this past weekend when Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry fulfilled his promise to protestors that he would remove it. 

The cost to remove the obelisk is unknown. However, Mayor Curry had attributed $500,000 in his 2022-2023 proposed budget for removal of another monument honoring the women of the Confederacy, located at Springfield Park, as reported by First Coast News. The monument is still standing in Springfield Park, which was called Confederate Park until 2020.

Take Em’ Down Jax and the Northside Coalition have been the loudest proponents for removing Confederate statues in Jacksonville. Both groups are committed to regular peaceful protest until all signs of the Confederacy are scrubbed from the public square.  

“We will continue our protests until all Confederate symbols are removed from public property in Jacksonville,” the Northside Coalition said. “These monuments glorify the Confederacy which fought a civil  war to keep Black people in chains. They represent a legacy of white supremacy and racial hatred.”

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Two years ago, the park housing the bronze Confederate statue, previously called Hemming Park, was renamed James Weldon Johnson Park in honor of the late civil rights leader. A true Renaissance man, Johnson served as United States consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua, and composed with his brother what is sometimes referred to as the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

The Friends of James Weldon Johnson Park approved a three-year plan to redesign the park last August.

In March, a bill was introduced in the Florida State Senate which would provide “that a person or an entity that damages, defaces, destroys, or removes a monument or memorial is liable for treble the costs to return, repair, or replace the monument or memorial.” The bill died in Rules in early May. 

Jonathan Martin, Republican state senator and sponsor of the bill, told the Miami Herald that the monuments are important because they show where our country began.

“We don’t build monuments around the sins of individuals, we build them because of something great that they did,” Martin added. “I want to teach my kids that despite your imperfections, you can still do something great.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, seven states have passed legislation blocking the removal of Confederate statues.