Just one day after Mayor Lenny Curry’s announcement that Confederate monuments were coming down, members of the Kirby Smith Camp 1209 Sons of Confederate Veterans gathered at the Old City Cemetery. The grounds hold Confederate veterans’ graves and were established almost 170 years ago.
On Wednesday morning, members were working to remove a historic marker and a small concrete Confederate soldier statue. The removal was preemptive according to the group, an order from Commander Calvin Hart to take the markers the camp paid for back — before the city took them away. According to a list of items coming down obtained by the Times-Union, one monument and two historic markers housed by the cemetery are on the chopping block.
LIST IHere are the 11 Jacksonville Civil War monuments, markers coming down
Following a call by Mayor Curry to remove all of the city’s Confederate monuments from public property and the release of what that entails, questions are swirling around who was involved in making the list and if it’s appropriate to include markers and National Historic Landmarks.
Curry’s arrangement to remove monuments was prompted by a series of Black Lives Matter marches, pushing city leaders to reevaluate how history — especially Black history — is presented in everyday life. The first to go was the Confederate soldier statue in Hemming Park last week. The marches were sparked by the killing of George Floyd, eliciting protests across the world — including in Jacksonville — and calls for change.
Now, 10 more monuments and markers — including plaques, bronze casts and signs on trees throughout public city property — are up next for removal.
The list reveal came days before a protest that was originally supposed to revolve around a call to take down Confederate monuments in Jacksonville. That event is still happening, organizers confirmed.
Curry’s move to remove the monuments is something many see as a sign of progress. But others worry the city’s move for growth takes it too far by removing historic markers and will inadvertently wipe away some of Jacksonville’s oldest pieces of history. The list leaving experts questioning how much thought really went into determining what will be removed.
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While the Kirby Smith Camp 1209 Sons of Confederate Veterans maintain a small, pristine looking plot section for Confederate soldiers inside the Old City Cemetery, member Chris Bunton said the group also does a monthly cleaning of the entire cemetery — including old and forgotten Black, Jewish and Union soldier sections.
“We straighten headstones outside of our area. What we are doing is taking care of history,” Bunton said. “We're not racists. The different areas of the cemetery are all segregated. We take care of them all.”
The group’s members said it didn’t have prior knowledge that its artifacts would be on Curry’s list and voiced concerns about history being erased.
In fact, a third item from the cemetery that the camp members didn’t approach on Wednesday is also set to be removed according to the list.
The Old City Cemetery’s Grandstand, a cinder block speaker-box that looks over the Confederate soldiers’ graves, is one of two more monuments on the list. The other is Springfield’s Monument to the Women of the Southland in the neighborhood’s Confederate Park.
City Council member Matt Carlucci said he’s a strong supporter of removing Confederate monuments, but doesn’t see the purpose of taking things from the historic cemetery.
“I can’t bring myself to object to the monument being placed in the section of the cemetery where Confederate soldiers are buried,” he said.
Carlucci argued it would be appropriate to instead place the removed Confederate items from across city property in the Old City Cemetery because it “does not hide our history, but does confine it to the past.”
“We need to recognize our past for what it is,” he added. “But we should not pay homage to a hurtful and often violent history.”
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There’s still a lot that’s unknown regarding Curry’s new stance on monuments being removed. It’s unclear exactly when items will be removed or where they will go. But we do know what’s coming down — and that it’s happening pretty soon.
“It’s going to be continuous over the next few weeks,” city spokeswoman Nikki Kimbleton said. “We are working with the Cultural Council to determine the best location for these monuments and markers.”
In total, eight historic markers are listed to come down, including plaques for the Maple Leaf — a National Historic Landmark for the Union transport ship sunken by Confederate mines, informational signs at the Camp Milton Historic Preserve and more.
Alan Bliss, executive director of the Jacksonville Historic Society, said Mayor Curry hasn’t consulted the society about the removal of monuments and markers. He says they’ve reached out “through a number of channels” to ensure the society has a seat at the table before historic site markers are removed.
“Historic site markers are not monuments or memorials,” Bliss said. “They identify places where actual events of the past took place. As such, they should be protected, as long as the content of their message is demonstrably correct.”
Author and activist Ennis Davis, who has written in depth about Jacksonville’s architecture, infrastructure and Civil Rights history, said he wondered if Curry’s list is “a bit premature.”
“If historical markers are being tossed, it would seem that we're throwing the baby out with the bath water and have not invested the time in learning our own history, which is unfortunate because that points to much larger problems,” Davis said. “In my opinion, Confederate monuments erected to commemorate Jim Crow era supremacy are a different animal than markers that note the site of a significant historical event.”
The removal of Civil War monuments has been an ongoing discussion in the city of Jacksonville. In 2017, then-City Council President Anna Lopez Brosche assembled a task force on Civil Rights that discussed the removal of confederate monuments from public property.
In a memo published by the task force in 2018, the group said taking the now-removed Hemming Park statue off public property would help create a more welcoming public square.
“Many Jacksonville residents believe that the reason for the Confederate monument’s placement was to serve as a reminder to former slaves and descendants of their ‘place in society’,” the memo said. The task force added that members didn’t want to see monuments destroyed, but rather, placed elsewhere with appropriate context.
Tim Gilmore, a local author who also served on Brosche’s task force, voiced concerns about markers being taken away.
“There is a difference between a memorial and a marker. There’s a historical marker acknowledging Ax Handle Saturday at Hemming Park, but that marker doesn’t praise what happened there,” he said. “Not wanting the Confederacy praised is the opposite of wanting history erased.”
Gilmore called Curry’s call to remove markers and memorials “paradoxical,” noting the timing of the mayor’s eager — now successful — invitation for the Republican National Convention to take place in Jacksonville. He added that the fact that the convention and President Donald Trump’s nomination celebration will take place on Ax Handle Saturday’s 60th anniversary a reason that “we clearly can’t trust that he does anything in good faith.”
While most City Council members have voiced support for the removal of the Hemming Park statue, as well as other Confederate monuments, the concept of removing historic markers is trickier.
"Anything that advances an understanding of our history that is balanced and from which we can learn and grow as a community deserves to be accessible to the citizens of Jacksonville,“ Councilman Michael Boylan said.
In a Times-Union survey, council members LeAnna Cumber, Aaron Bowman, Garrett Dennis, Joyce Morgan, Matt Carlucci, Terrance Freeman and Brenda Priestly Jackson all voiced their support for the removal of Confederate monuments from public property.
“The City of Jacksonville has many clouds hanging over its head at this time,” Morgan said. “I have listened to both sides of this debate and I feel that the mayor has taken the right step. The next hurdle is the placement of the monuments because they too are deeply embedded in Jacksonville’s history.”
This survey was distributed before the Times-Union obtained and published the list of what was being removed.
“In light of the list, I would say that as someone whose family fought in the Civil War for the North, I believe understanding history is critical to understanding the present,” Councilwoman LeAnna Cumber said. “But I believe history must be seen and taught in context. Historical markers can do just that and have a place in our city."
Cumber added, “statues on the other hand by their nature tend to highlight one side or one event without demonstrating the broader reality. And their presence can be painful and not productive to healing wounds. And that truly has no place in our city parks.”
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It’s unclear who was involved in Curry’s call to remove Civil War related markers from public property. The Times-Union asked Kimbleton for clarification regarding who made the call, but have not heard back as of publication time.
“If our history prevents us from reaching the full potential of our future, then we need to take action,” Mayor Curry said in an emailed statement provided to the Times-Union. “I ordered the confederate statue in Hemming Park to be taken down as the start of a commitment to everyone in our City that we will find a way to respect each other and thrive.”
Activist groups like the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition — which focuses on social justice — say the city’s list is a step in the right direction, markers and all.
The group initially planned a downtown rally Saturday that would focus on demanding the removal of Confederate monuments. Instead, it will center around other goals local protesters have been asking for since the start of rallies in Jacksonville two weeks ago.
Demands being focused on Saturday include JSO dropping charges against peaceful protesters, releasing body camera footage, law enforcement reform and an end to police brutality.
On Friday, one day before the rally, the State Attorney’s Office announced it wouldn’t prosecute 48 people charged for unlawful assembly on May 31.
The Saturday rally is scheduled to take place in front of the Duval County Courthouse, starting at 3 p.m. before a march to City Hall and back.
The push to take down the monuments isn’t just happening in Jacksonville.
Nationally, more and more Confederate statues are being dismantled — including in Louisville, Indianapolis, Virginia and more.
About a week ago, the Women of the Southland was vandalized with red paint to mimic blood. But by Monday, it was cleaned and had caution tape draped around its pillars.
A day later, the Hemming Park Confederate soldier statue, which stood in the center of downtown for more than 120 years, was taken down.
“This is a coming home moment, it’s a beautiful moment,” said Denise Hunt, a local nurse and lifelong Jacksonville resident who visited the park before work. "This is saving lives right here.”
Hunt — who is Black and whose family goes back several generations in Jacksonville — described walking to school every day when she was young and being “reminded of racial hatred.”
Gilmore said those reminders of racial hatred come with most Confederate memorials — not just in Jacksonville.
“None of these memorials are going to have blatantly honest language attached to them. Their dedicatory plaques won’t use the N-word ... they won’t even mention slavery,” he said, noting that it’s more subliminal, whitewashing cities’ and the country’s sordid past. “A Confederate memorial both memorializes the Confederacy and all the reasons the Confederates themselves gave for their cause and it lies about what it’s memorializing.”
For that reason, nationally, more and more Confederate statues are being dismantled — including in Louisville, Indianapolis, Virginia and more.
Jacksonville based activist Mike Todd said the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition agrees with Curry’s list of what’s being taken down — but they want to see more.
“We will always include the demand to remove the Andrew Jackson statue,” Todd said.
The statue resides at 76 S Laura St. and has been a downtown landmark for about 32 years.
Todd mentioned other school, building, bridge and street names the group would like to see changed, including the Isaiah D. Hart Bridge, Robert E. Lee High School and the Henry H. Buckman Bridge.
Hart was a slave owner, Lee a Confederate Army general noted by the Chicago Tribune as a “racist icon” and Buckman’s 1905 Buckman Act aimed to segregate colleges by race.
Records show Andrew Jackson — who the city is named after — was a slave owner and ethnic cleanser, widely vilified by Native Americans.
“The Andrew Jackson statue is the shrine to white supremacy just like the other two [remaining] statues are,” Todd said. “We want them all gone.”
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It’s unclear where the removed monuments and markers will end up.
“My administration will work with the Jacksonville Cultural Council to convene experts in history and art to ensure we acknowledge our past in a full and complete way; a way forward that leaves no person’s heritage or experience behind,” Curry said in a provided statement.
The list provided by Curry’s office and the initial removal of the Hemming Park statue without involving City Council is a stark contrast from the Mayor’s take on the issue only a couple of years back.
In 2017, during Brosche’s push to remove the monuments, Curry refused to say whether he’d support removing them. His campaign used Brosche’s stance against her when they both ran for mayor.
Members of the community say it’s a step in the right direction — but caution that there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“[Announcing the monuments’ removal] was a good move forward,” NAACP Jacksonville Branch President Isaiah Rumlin said. “But just by removing a statue, that’s not going to solve the problem.”
Councilwoman Brenda Priestly Jackson said she was grateful for the Confederate monuments’ removal.
“Symbolic representations of oppression matter,” she said. “Confederate monuments, have no place in a just society. We now address systemic and institutional barriers (un-coded racism) services, opportunity and access.“
Emily Bloch: (904) 359-4083
