Several onlookers could be seen at Springfield Park in Downtown Jacksonville Wednesday morning, watching construction crews remove a Confederate monument.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A champagne bottle, a speaker playing Motown music and several onlookers could be seen at Springfield Park in Downtown Jacksonville from 4 a.m. till 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Orange tape and “no trespassing” signs covered the fences surrounding the park. The occasion? Confederate monuments within the gazebo at the park were taken off and dragged away by a crane.
This is a cause that members from Take ‘Em Down Jax say they have been advocating for, for nearly 10 years.
“Well it’s progress, right?” Hope McMath told First Coast News. “It’s beautiful progress, it’s important. It doesn’t solve all the issues that this city has, not by far, but this has always been low-hanging fruit. Like this is the easy stuff and it should’ve been done a long time ago.”
Mayor Donna Deegan released the following statement on the monument’s removal:
“Symbols matter. They tell the world what we stand for and what we aspire to be. By removing the confederate monument from Springfield Park, we signal a belief in our shared humanity. That we are all created equal. The same flesh and bones. The same blood running through our veins. The same heart and soul,” said Mayor Donna Deegan in a news release. “This is not in any way an attempt to erase history but to show that we’ve learned from it. That when we know better, we do better by and for each other. My prayer today is for our beautiful city to continue embracing unity and bending the arc of history towards justice. Let’s keep lifting as we climb.”
The Jessie Ball duPont Fund, which made funding available through a grant, also released the below statement on the monument’s removal:
“Great cities are anchored by inclusive public spaces that welcome all. The Jessie Ball duPont Fund helped fund the removal of the Springfield Park Confederate statue so that our public spaces might be more welcoming and inclusive for all Jaxsons. Removing – but not erasing – statues that commemorate the Confederacy from public lands is critical to creating communities where everyone feels they belong.
We applaud Mayor Donna Deegan’s bold action and clarity of vision. We are grateful to nonprofit partners like 904ward who are leading equity work in our city.
Funding this work continues our engagement on the issue of monuments and commemoration, which dates back more than five years, starting with hosting a series of community conversations about what to do with our Confederate monuments, and the longstanding offer from two years ago to pay for and facilitate additional public conversations in response to City Council interest. What we do next as a city now that the statue has been removed is just as important as the removal itself, and we look forward to continued conversations.”
While dozens of people watched as the statues came down, not everyone was happy to see them be removed.
Jacksonville City Council President Ron Salem made comments on the monument’s removal which can be read below:
“I acknowledge the removal of the Confederate monument from Springfield Park this morning, recognizing the complexities surrounding historical symbols. While understanding the desire for change, it’s crucial to ensure open dialogue and legislative oversight in an effort to promote a unified approach to addressing historical artifacts. I was made aware of the removal this morning by Mayor Deegan. I encourage constructive dialogue to address any concerns among my colleagues and to find a shared path forward.”
Jacksonville City Councilman Nick Howland released the following statement as well:
“Donna Deegan is our Mayor, not our Monarch. Waiting until the cover of night – on a holiday evening no less – before taking a backhoe to the 100-year-old ‘Women of the South’ monument in Springfield is a blatant overreach of her authority.
The City Council Finance Committee specifically mandated that any funding to be spent on the statue – whether for removal, relocation, or contextualization – must follow a Council policy decision. This was unanimously approved by the Council and signed by the Mayor.
Regardless of anyone’s personal opinion of this historic monument, Mayor Deegan’s actions are both an abuse of power and a blatant disregard for transparency.
This was City Council’s decision to make. Period.”
After the statue on top of the gazebo of a woman with a flag was removed and placed on a wood palette, supporters of the removal of the statues started to raise their voices. Chants like “Take ‘Em Down!” and “What does democracy look? and “This is what democracy looks like!” could be heard throughout Phelps Street.
Once the first statue was down, the construction crew was able to wrap and remove the statue of two people sitting inside the gazebo. A large ‘Black Lives Matter’ flag was waved as more chants and speeches followed during the removal process, one in which was from the late Ben Frazier’s daughter, Kelly Frazier.
With a smile on her face and a blowhorn in her hand, Frazier said “those long hours at [Jacksonville] City Hall,” have led to this moment.
“We hope this is truly the end for that hateful monstrosity in Springfield Park that glorifies the Confederacy,” Frazier said in a statement shared with First Coast News. “When it is gone, there will be another ray of hope for a brand new day in Jacksonville.”
