A.G. Gancarski
Almost a year after the events in Charlottesville led former Jacksonville City Council President Anna Brosche to urge an inventory and potential relocation of Jacksonville’s Confederate monuments and markers. a seven-person committee on that body will mull “historical remembrance.”
“As we continue to have a dialogue about long-term planning for our city’s future, it is essential that we also take the time to reflect on our past,” reads the memo from current Council President Aaron Bowman.
“We must contemplate all that brought Jacksonville to this moment in time,” the memo continues, “and that should include recognition of a history that considers our diversity and the challenges we’ve overcome.”
The committee will look at how to acknowledge said history, in public parks and events, as well as legislation to that end.
One bill is on pause: 2018-420, a Brosche bill that would “claim its Duval County Memorial Monument from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Alabama and to install the monument in Hemming Park to commemorate the county’s lynching victims.”
The monument to lynching victims would have proved to be a controversial addition to Hemming Park; this bill buys some time.
The committee, chaired by Council VP Scott Wilson, will include Brosche along with Greg Anderson, Sam Newby, Reggie Gaffney, Tommy Hazouri, and the newest Councilman, Terrance Freeman.
2 comments
Seber Newsome III
July 16, 2018 at 8:55 am
I would suggest to the committee, that they put up a monument to honor the greatness achieved by blacks in Jacksonville or have contributed to Jacksonville. There are so many to choose from. If the committee needs help , I have. a long list of potential candidates.
Frankie M.
July 16, 2018 at 9:31 am
There are monuments dedicated to the Holocaust. What’s wrong with a lynching monument? It’s as much a part of our history as anything else.
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