I'm having a hard time understanding what's racist about a statue of a woman surrounded by her children waiting on her husband to come home from war. Are we going to pretend that war never happened is that what we're doing? Excuse me for not getting this quote not exactly right but someone once said if we don't remember our mistakes we're bound to repeat them. I am a open minded person and looking forward to responses to help me understand.
For this particular statue, it's important to know that it wasn't actually erected during the Civil War period. It was erected over 50 years after the war ended for the purpose of intimidating black citizens during the Jim Crow era.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/12/27/historian-springfield-park-confederate-monument-was-put-up-to-intimidate-black-residents-during-jim-crow-era/As the mayor rightfully put it, "symbols matter," and despite all the doublespeak from local politicians, allowing these symbols to remain standing is an implicit endorsement of the Confederacy.
Yes, history is important, but Jacksonville belongs to all of us, and there's no universe where we need any public statues openly celebrating the enslavement, oppression, or intimidation of any ethnic group, regardless of historical context.
We absolutely should remember our past lest we repeat. But we can remember through Civil Rights or local historical museums without celebrating them in front of City Hall or in public parks.
To me, the best thing to do is to try to put yourselves into the shoes of someone else. How would you feel if you were a black family going to that particular park and walking beside that statue, openly celebrating an institution centered on the right to enslave African Americans? Would probably put a damper on your pickle ball game, right?
Removing the statue should have been the easiest decision of Deegan's early mayoral run.
Thankfully she made it.
