LAKELAND, Fla. — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit aimed at blocking Lakeland from moving a statue honoring Confederate soldiers.
District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington dismissed the lawsuit in January filed by Confederate rights groups against Lakeland.
On Tuesday, the city plans to move a statue of a Confederate soldier from Munn Park, where it was erected in 1910. Crews will move the statue to a veterans’ cemetery where it will be placed among statues honoring the dead from other wars.
The monument was fenced off in preparation for the Tuesday move. Scaffolding is scheduled to go up Tuesday as the process begins.
It comes after months of debate. The history of the monument dates back more than 100 years. It was placed in Munn Park by United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910.
In August 2017, as the nationwide debate over Confederate statues reached its peak, Lakeland city leaders began discussing the future of the monument in Munn Park.
In December 2018, county commissioners voted to remove the monument from Munn Park. They decided in May 2018 to move the monument to Veterans Memorial Park.
County commissioners then voted in November 2018 to use red light camera money for the removal and relocation, but a federal lawsuit was filed to block the move. In January, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit.
The relocation process is finally supposed to start on Tuesday. The same company that moved the monument in Tampa will be the one moving the monument in Munn Park.
The city will use $225,000 in red light camera money to pay for the move, which also included money for security cameras to protect the statue in its new home at Veterans Memorial Park and landscaping as its replacement in Munn Park.
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