The decision was essentially a reversal of a measure the board passed four weeks ago that aimed to keep in place and protect all war monuments across the county. It comes after the chorus of calls to take the monument down that followed the June voted, which included everyone from civil rights leaders to local professional sports teams.
Commissioner Les Miller placed the proposal to move the monument, which sits outside a county courthouse annex, on Wednesday's meeting agenda just as he had in June. And, in the month that elapsed since the first vote, some commissioners apparently had a change of heart.
One commissioner whose perspective shifted was Victor Crist, though he was not able to make Wednesday's meeting. But Commissioner Sandy Murman was the one who swung the vote.
She credited her shifting on the issue to a breakfast meeting with Tom Scarritt, a trial lawyer she called a very good friend. His proposal to raise private money (including his own) to cover the relocation of the monument — something that could have cost the county more than $100,000 to carry out — was what intrigued her. Murman said while she personally supported keeping the monument in place, the community outcry and the use of private funds were what compelled her to change her mind.
“These issues take time. They evolve. You get more information, you talk to more people, you see what the end result of the decisions, what effect they can have,” she said. “I do not and will not call it a removal. I will call it a relocation, because I think that is a respectful to both sides.”
Before the vote, Scarritt explained why he chose to kick in his own money and to raise funds via a GoFundMe page.
“Why am I doing this? Because I think we have a tremendous opportunity here," Scarritt said. "Cities throughout the South are struggling with how to deal with their statues, with their history. New Orleans hired contractors who put on black masks and removed their statues in the middle of the night. We can do better. We must do better.”
The two holdouts on the commission were Ken Hagan and Stacy White.
Aside from White's trying in vain to pass an amendment to Miller's motion calling for the statue's removal that would have decoupled the removal from its relocation, there was little discussion on the part of those against the taking the monument down.
The board's discussion followed hours of public commentary.
The vast majority of those comments were on the side of the monument's removal.
Phil Compton, who is organizing chair with the Suncoast Sierra Club, said when he was growing up in South Carolina, his eighth grade history textbook made little mention of the racism and brutality African-Americans endured at the hands of slaveowners and subsequently during Jim Crow.
“It only had one paragraph on the subject of slavery and Civil Rights, on the entire role of blacks in [South Carolina's] history," Compton said. "Then I learned how the marvelous old houses of Charleston were built entirely by skilled slave artisans, how black elected officials were dragged out of their offices and shot in the street the minute U.S. troops withdrew in 1876, how blacks were terrorized for 100 years after being freed to keep them 'in their place.'”
“Really, this should have been settled a long time ago,” said Charles Hearns, who leads historical walking tours in downtown Tampa. “You don't have to be a historian to understand what this was all about after the Civil War, after the South was defeated.”
Opponents shared a video of activists burning the American flag and engaged in curse-filled diatribes, as though Wednesday's decision put the county on a slippery slope toward kowtowing to the flag-burning, violence-inciting activists projected on screen. They also called for a countywide referendum on the matter.
Chris Rose of Gainesville called on the commission to consider the pleas of those who were in the minority on the issue.
“I would implore you then respectfully to represent the entirety of the population that you serve," he said.
Not lost in the discussion was the threat of violence against individuals who favored taking the monument down.
Al Higginbotham — the first Republican on the board to support the statue's removal — said he received all kinds of messages threatening things like tarring and feathering — and worse. He read aloud one of the emails he received that sounded like a thinly-veiled death threat.
"The one that was most alarming, it came predawn hours today, says 'being a traitor has permanent consequences. Your decision to erase history and monuments in your jurisdiction is genocide. You'll…' — he refers that I'll be dealt with here," Higginbotham said.
During his public comment, Tampa Pastor James Golden — who has been vocally in favor of its removal — declined to give the address of his church (giving an address is standard for everyone who offers public comment) out of fear white supremacists would use Jim Crow-era intimidation tactics on him.
“I don't want to give you the address of my church because someone might come tonight and burn it down,” he said.
This article appears in Jul 20-27, 2017.