Florida Dems take aim at Confederate holidays, monuments

Isolated photo of Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate forces at Gettysburg

The 2018 Legislative Session will see two bills from Florida Democrats that will take aim at Confederate symbolism: holidays and monuments, specifically.

Coral Springs Rep. Jared Moskowitz’s HB 277 would strike Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis birthdays and Confederate Memorial Day from the list of legal holidays in Florida.

Moskowitz asserts that legal holidays should not honor “those that cost millions of lives in the defense of slavery.”

“I’m positive that celebrating racism shouldn’t be on the calendar each year.  It’s not erasing history to put it where it belongs,” Moskowitz added, “in a history book or a museum hall.”

Moskowitz’s bill would have two committee stops: the Neil Combee chaired Oversight, Transparency, and Administration Subcommittee first, followed by the Governmental Accountability Committee, which is chaired by Matt Caldwell.

Senator Lauren Book will sponsor the Senate companion bill: SB 224.

Book’s bill was referred to Community Affairs, Governmental Oversight and Accountability, and Rules.

Rep. Shevrin Jones, a West Park Democrat, is carrying a bill (HB 235) that would remove Confederate monuments from public land by 2020, moving them to one of those “museum halls” (Specifically, the Museum of Florida History).

Monuments to white separatists and supremacists would also be removed, a condition that may lead to robust debate on certain of Florida’s historical figures without Confederate ties.

“Who we once were cannot, and should not, continue to define who we are today as a state,” Jones asserted.

“My Florida today stands as a shining example of the strength that our diversity brings, not a place still caught up in celebrating the purveyors of a racist ideology that kept our ancestors confined to bondage. It is time that we assess this period in our history with the context it deserves and with the clear-eyed understanding that our ghosts are just that: spirits whose presence cannot continue to haunt us,” Jones added.

Jones’ bill has three committees of reference.

It was referred to the Oversight, Transparency, and Administration Subcommittee first. From there, it would have stops in Government Operations and Technology Appropriations Subcommittee (chaired by Blaise Ingoglia), followed by the Governmental Accountability Committee.