Debate over Jacksonville’s Confederate monument in Springfield Park rages on – 108 years after its dedication and a month after its removal.
In just three years, plans have been made, changed and abandoned as the city reckoned with the “Women of the Southland” monument. Weekly protests and hours of public comment, for and against leaving the structure, dominated City Council meetings.
Campaigns waged on a candidate’s beliefs about the fate of the monument. The state Legislature entered the fray, potentially voting for Jacksonville to return the statues.
Now, though parts of the monument rest in a storage facility, the debate continues.
Removal:Confederate monument removed from Jacksonville’s Springfield Park early Wednesday
List of Jacksonville monuments:Here are the 11 Jacksonville Civil War monuments, markers coming down
Mayor Donna Deegan ordered the removal of the two bronze statues – one of a woman in robes carrying a Confederate flag and another of a woman reading to two children – on Dec. 27 of last year without getting City Council or Planning Department approval.