Surprise removal of Confederate monument garners strong, mixed reactions from Jacksonville residents

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Symbols of the Confederacy, plucked from their perches, loaded onto a flatbed truck and transported to a nearby warehouse.

The surprise move Wednesday morning drove some to celebrate and drove others to anger or heartache.

“It’s a representation of my ancestry,” said Wayde Alford who is with a group called Save Southern Heritage.

MORE: ‘Donna Deegan is our Mayor, not our Monarch’: Councilman criticizes removal of Confederate monument in Springfield

Northside Coalition volunteer JoAnn Brooks had a different take.

“A lost cause. Hatred. Division,” said Brooks when asked what the symbols mean to her.

The monument was erected in 1915 as a tribute to the women of the Confederacy. It was commissioned by the Florida Division of United Confederate Veterans, and the state legislature paid for about half of it.

“It’s about the women who stayed home, took care of their homes and their farmsteads. Women who couldn’t even vote. They stayed home and did what they did while the men were away, and some of those men were conscripted,” Alford said.

Some people, including a local historian, said that the statue is more about intimidation in the Jim Crow South.

“That’s a typical talking point from the left,” Alford said.

MORE: Historian: Springfield Park Confederate monument was put up to intimidate Black residents during Jim Crow era

The statues at issue have been removed from their places of prominence and were strapped to wooden pallets. One statue shows a woman with two children, to the left is a pedestal, and then right in front of that statute, another of a woman holding a Confederate flag that for about 100 years sat on top of a gazebo in Springfield Park, formerly known as Confederate Park.

“It’s like a chain being broken, where we can now grow and develop and see what Jacksonville can do together so that we can be a better place where we can invite our family and friends,” Brooks said.

She believes the removal of the statues could be the start of change.

It’s not clear what will happen to the statutes.

News4JAX asked people out at the removal site on Wednesday what they would like to see happen and got lots of answers including putting them in a museum, melting them down and putting them back on a pedestal at Springfield Park or elsewhere.