Guest Column: Confederate monuments have no business being erected on public property
Confederate monuments glorify slavery, oppression, and racial hatred.
The ideology of white supremacy should not be honored on public property because the confederacy sought to keep my people in chains.
In the words of Reverend Phillip Baber jytukr “The continued existence of confederate monuments in this city is an assault on the dignity of every Black resident of Jacksonville.”
For years Northside Coalition of Jacksonville and Take’Em down Jax have demanded that the monuments be removed because of the racial hatred that they represent.
Most recently NCOJ demonstrated outside the Mayor's office to demand that the Mayor keep his word to remove the confederate monuments.
Rather than meet with the Northside Coalition, The Mayor instead erected new trespass warning signs at City Hall and threatened to have us arrested for conducting a peaceful non-violent demonstration. Still, we say “remove the confederate monuments!”
Lanelle Phillmon-Allen offers the Mayor this advice.”As a Veteran, A confederate descendant, a local resident, and a humanitarian, I say It is time to keep your word and take it down.”
Throughout this hot mess display of “good old boy politics,” some folks have sat by quietly and said nothing! We say “Silence is no longer an option.”
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” - Martin Luther King Jr.
This incident proves the time has finally come for Jacksonville to fully embrace the issue of racial reckoning. Glaring racial disparities in health, housing, education, economics, and law enforcement are tarnishing and staining the city’s international reputation and image.
Activist and author James Baldwin said “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
We demand the removal of confederate monuments.
In the words of civil rights icon John Lewis we will continue to make “Good trouble” by way of our non-violent protests. The Northside Coalition of Jacksonville will continue to Agitate, Educate and Organize!
This is not just a moment; this is a movement and there's a lot more to this movement than the struggle to remove a few confederate monuments!
The confederate monuments are simply symptomatic of many greater problems that are dividing us. What's missing here is leadership. Mayor Curry can not ignore the city’s serious racial problems by simply erecting some new signs and by acting as if the problems do not exist.
Ben Frazier, founder and president, Northside Coalition of Jacksonville Inc.