BRADENTON, Fla. — There are new developments in the controversy over the possible return of a Confederate monument to the Manatee County Courthouse grounds. County commissioners have postponed their planned talks which were initially on the agenda for Tuesday night's meeting.
The monument, an obelisk, was erected in 1924 by the Judah P. Benjamin chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Inscribed are the names of key Confederate Generals Like Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, and honors soldiers who fought to secede from the Union to primarily maintain the institution of slavery.
Nearly a century later and after several protests, the county commissioners said the monument had to go and it was taken down in 2017. However, it sustained some heavy damage during the process of removing it.
Earlier this month, commissioners voted to approve a discussion about the monument after three residents raised the issue requesting that it be returned to the courthouse.
The delay in the discussion has not impacted the debate over the issue. There's a planned rally at the meeting's venue Tuesday morning.
Supporters who want the statue to return say it's part of history and should be preserved as a public reminder of the nation's ugly past.
However, many others say bringing it back to the courthouse after it was taken down would be outrightly offensive.
Leaders from Manatee County's NAACP said they are of the position that a monument honoring Confederate soldiers who fought against the United States Union Army during the Civil War has no place at a location like a courthouse.
"Stonewall Jackson didn't do anything to represent us as a people in Florida," President of the Manatee County NAACP Luther Wilkins said. "Why are we having monuments for the soldiers who lost and committed treason?"
"They voted back then that it was a safety risk to have it here and we still feel that it could possibly turn into a safety risk bringing it back here," Wilkins added.
"We don't need that kind of turmoil," former Commissioner of Manatee County Betsy Benac said.
Benac was among the commissioners who voted to remove the statue from the courthouse grounds.
"We had to close down the courthouse, we had a send our employees home at the time," Benac said. "Safety was the issue that I was concerned about then and I would certainly be concerned about it now if I was a commissioner."
A representative of Manatee Patriots and a long-time resident of Manatee County said the issue of removal and reinstallation of the Confederate Soldiers War Memorial at the historic Manatee Courthouse is controversial.
"I support the reinstallation in order to preserve the memory and historical authenticity of the men who fought and died for a lost cause," Jack May said in a statement sent to 10 Tampa Bay. "In this case, it is to remind us, never again will this nation enslave another human being."
May, a long-time resident of the county, agreed that a plaque elaborating more on the large historical context of the monument, what it represented, and the motives behind why it was erected needs to accompany the monument.
His full statement reads,
"The removal and reinstallation of the Confederate Soldiers War Memorial at the historic Manatee Courthouse, is controversial, to say the least. I support the reinstallation in order to preserve the memory and historical authenticity of the men who fought and died for a lost cause. In this case, it is to remind us, never again will this nation enslave another human being. Some state that this is only a reminder of a hurtful past... I submit to you that it should be a reminder to all that we will not be forced to forget the intolerable side of our history. For without it, we are doomed to repeat it.
"On December 25th, 1868, President Andrew Johnson granted full pardon and amnesty to all persons engaged in the "Late Rebellion" (The Civil War). This pardon required all who had owned slaves to renounce such practice, in an effort to reunite the Republic. It would take another one hundred years to right the wrongs and to ensure the collective knowledge of a nation comes to fully realize that all persons are to be judged by their character, and not the color of their skin.
"I find it most unfortunate that there are those from outside our community who would demand a 90-year-old soldiers' monument, they find distasteful, removed without understanding there is a benefit, lest we forget."
Community leaders said efforts to relocate the monument to a veterans park and to the Gamble Plantation State Park which was once owned by the UDC were rejected.
"They said they had no place that they would like to put it nor do they want to have the resources spent that would be necessary to protect it at the gamble mansion," Benac said.
Leaders are also considering the Manatee Historical Village Park but other citizens of the county have made other recommendations.
"My personal feeling is to put it in a museum. People just don't understand that our history books are not all that accurate," said 90-year-old retired veteran, Bob Powell, and also a long-time Manatee resident.
"Why do we have to spend so much time with that it should be a simple thing, put them in a museum that's what museums are for," Powell said.
Commissioners did not say why the item was removed from the agenda nor when plans to decide on its eventual location would be considered.
"I don't care what members are set to vote on it, if they choose to go any other way besides following what they did in 2017 will see them in court," Wilkins added.
Community activists said they'll still hold a planned demonstration against the return of the statue, Tuesday. Citizens can also still air their views on the matter during public comments for future agenda items.