For the second day in a row, civil rights advocates gathered Tuesday in front of the now-notorious monument honoring Confederate soldiers outside a county courthouse annex in downtown Tampa to call on the Hillsborough County Commission to support its removal.
On Wednesday morning, according to a new report in the Tampa Bay Times, the commission will likely to reverse its June decision to leave the statue in place in the wake of an intense community discussion on which even the region’s pro sports teams weighed in. (So did we. And so did you.)
“Tomorrow is a special day here in Hillsborough County,” said Tampa City Councilman Frank Reddick. “We have the opportunity to make history here in Hillsborough County tomorrow. I hope that the remaining commissioners, one or two, or three, will be brave enough to join those three who already voted to move this monument.”
In June, four of seven commissioners voted to keep the statue in place: Commissioners Victor Crist, Ken Hagan, Sandy Murman and Stacy White. Crist and Murman have each apparently had changes of heart ahead of Wednesday’s vote, though Crist will be out of town for the vote, the Times notes.
It’s about time, activists said Tuesday.
“It was part of a campaign to distort history, to erase history, to whitewash history and to eliminate the real facts, the real truth. This is not a monument to heroism,” said Nadine Smith of Equality Florida.
They stressed that its removal isn’t about erasing history as much as it is recognizing that symbols that to some glorify the dark legacy of racism and slavery in the South don’t belong in public spaces.
County Commissioner Les Miller, who first proposed its removal, said statues like the one in front of which he stood were installed across the Deep South during Reconstruction as a way to reinforce institutional racism, and to take them down is to demonstrate that times have changed.
“This is not about trying to rewrite history. We all know we can’t rewrite history,” Miller said. “We all know it was a horrible war that took place; we all know why it took place. Some people say it was about states’ rights, states’ rights to own slaves. That’s what it was about.”
If there are indeed enough votes for its removal, the only real question mark is where it will end up. The president of the Florida chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy is in favor of its removal and has said the group would take it. A private cemetery has also offered to keep and maintain it.
Activists and officials said installing it in a cemetery on public property would be inappropriate.
“But let me be clear: that monument will not go in Oaklawn Cemetery,” Reddick said. “Let me make that clear. They can vote to take it down, but it will not go in Oaklawn Cemetery in the City of Tampa. I will assure you of that.”
The issue has drawn national attention much like other confederate monument debates in places like Orlando and New Orleans.
Across the bay, shortly after the event in downtown Tampa Tuesday, six of the seven St. Petersburg mayoral candidates said they support taking down the monument during a forum. The only holdout was perennial candidate Paul Congemi, who earlier in the evening said President Obama was the equivalent of reparations for the descendants of slaves and that those who don’t like it should move to Africa.
Wednesday’s discussion in Hillsborough County is slated to take place at the County Center in downtown Tampa at 10:45 a.m.
This article appears in Jul 13-20, 2017.
