A.G. Gancarski
New legislation that would stop cities from removing confederate monuments and would allow Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove local officials who approve those removals is exposing fissures in the Duval County legislative delegation.
Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon blasted bill sponsor Rep. Dean Black as partaking in attacks on “marginalized communities” in the wake of Black filing HB 395 and the Republican’s position on the Israel-Hamas conflict (Black hosted a rally supporting Israel recently at Jacksonville’s City Hall).
“It’s politically popular to attack marginalized communities in his community. Amongst his base,” Nixon told Florida Politics Friday morning.
This was a follow-up to a Nixon post on X. “It’s evident that Dean Black doesn’t like Black People. He’s used racist dog whistles and sayings throughout his history as Republican Party chair. Remember his ‘darken the door’ of City Hall statement about Tracye Polson’s race (for the Jacksonville City Council)? Now he wants to do what Republicans in this state do.”
Black is Chair of the Republican Party of Duval County, which was active in the election in the wake of City Council member Tommy Hazouri’s death a couple of years back. Republican Nick Howland defeated Polson in that contest.
The Jacksonville Republican rejected Nixon’s criticism out of hand, noting her lonely stance on legislation that pushed for a cease-fire in Israel. She sponsored the bill that only got two “yes” votes against 104 “no’s.”
“I’m not going to be lectured about marginalized people by a Representative that just proffered a racist, antisemitic resolution in the Florida House. When we stand with Israel we stand with the most marginalized people in history. When we support preserving our history, we support the history of all people,” Black said.
Nixon responded in kind.
“He also said nothing about the Palestinian people currently under bombardment. Or his colleague calling for the annihilation of them all (Rep. Michelle Salzman). He is a race baiter. Period. If he really cared about marginalized communities, he’d join our work in NW Jax to get more access to food in food insecure and redlined areas,” Nixon said.
Alluding to a racist murder of three at a Jacksonville Dollar General near a local historically Black university (Edward Waters University) earlier this year, Nixon said Black’s stance “emboldened” the White supremacist gunman “to kill” which “forced a shut down of one of the only food options in the area.”
“He should put his actions where his hollow response is,” Nixon said.
“And supporting the history of all people isn’t what he does. He pushes book bans, the mischaracterization of slavery and teaching it was of benefit to Black People. Dean Black is dangerous. And the fact he leads a party locally in power is even more dangerous.”
While bills blocking removal of monuments to the Confederacy have been filed before without success, this iteration for the 2024 Legislative Session actually offers new enforcement powers. In addition to giving the Governor the power to remove these officials, it would force officials to pay back the costs of replacing or repairing the memorial out of their personal wealth if they authorized actions to flout this law.
Nixon is only the latest Jacksonville Democrat to denounce the legislative proposal, which is also being carried in the Senate by Republican Jonathan Martin.
“This bill would be just another slap in the face to our Black community, which has already endured so much. It’s also an unconstitutional overreach that is the latest example of home rule being stripped away from Florida cities,” said Mayor Donna Deegan.
Deegan promised on the campaign trail that the last remaining monument in Jacksonville, a tribute to White Southern Women in what was once called Confederate Park, would come down during her administration.
22 comments
JD
November 10, 2023 at 9:58 am
THIS!
“It’s also an unconstitutional overreach that is the latest example of home rule being stripped away from Florida cities,”
The FLGOP SCREAMS States rights over Federal rights from the belltower while trampling the local governance under the boot.
Stop them and hold them accountable for this. The states know how to govern their people then local people know how best to do so as well. Otherwise they are shameless hypocritics (but we all knew that).
ScienceBLVR
November 10, 2023 at 9:59 am
Always wondered why Americans would support and revere the Confederacy or the soldiers who fought to preserve it. They were traitors to the basic premises our country was founded on, equality and freedom. Especially when so few actually owned slaves, themselves, sacrificing their lives for the wealthy plantation folks. Instead they committed to the Confederate vision based around an economy that required slavery to function.
To honor the proslavery ideology that these monuments represent is disgusting enough, but to buttress it with threats to elected public officials is truly shameful and if this is what the GOP has become in Florida, it may be time to secede…
MH/Duuuval
November 10, 2023 at 1:19 pm
Fully 3/4 of white Southerners before 1865 owned slaves or profited from them. Part of the reason the 3/4 went to war was the plantation owners’ grasp on state governments in the South — Florida was #4 to secede. The 3/4 white Southerners got hornswoggled — within a year the Confederacy ran out of volunteers and had to resort to a draft to get its manpower (large slaveowners got deferments.)
MH/Duuuval
November 10, 2023 at 1:21 pm
Sorry, that should read “fully 3/4 did not own slaves.”
Earl Pitts "The Big Voice On The Right" American
November 10, 2023 at 10:25 am
Honestly, America, this was some NOT well thought out legislation for any PATRIOT Republicans to introduce at this time just prior to the upcoming Presidential Election.
However, America, it was perfectly well thought out legislation for any RINO Republicans to introduce at this time just prior to the upcoming Presidential Election if their goal was to reignite the fires of Raicial Hatred, Back-Stab The Governor, and further flush our Great Nation down the stinky toilet of history.
Ron and I, Earl Pitts American, are looking into exactly who sponsored and supported this piece of crap legislation for future punishment.
*Let’s just hope you “RINO BACKSTABBING LOW-LIFE STOOL-PUSHERS” don’t expect The Governor to sign off on any of YOUR legislative priorities because you will take NOTHING home to your constitutes.*
Other than that Y’all have a great weekend,
Earl Pitts American
Earl Pitts "The Big Voice On The Right" American
November 10, 2023 at 10:32 am
…. just a quick follow-up on my sage wisdom knowledge – drop above:
Calling a Florida Republican Law Maker a STOOL – PUSHER is a pretty hard slap in the face …. don’t you Real Florida Patriots agree?
If you don’t “Get It” just think about it for a little while …. it will come to you.
EPA
JD
November 10, 2023 at 12:53 pm
Don’t seem to be getting many other “real Florida patriots” to agree with you, do you EarL (“with the big “L” for LOSER)?
You know why? Nobody wants your clown circus any more.
If you don’t “Get It” just think about it for a little while …. it will come to you.
JD
Earl Pitts "The Big Voice On The Right" American
November 10, 2023 at 8:28 pm
Ignore JD’s nonsense America,
JD”s just butt-hurt because I, Earl Pitts American, am very popular with the ladies, am loaded with “Sage Wisdom” and JD’s got none of that stuff.
America we should pity JD and please don’t hate him because he’s just acting out due to his jealousy of me, The Sage, Good-Looking, Highly Popular, Social Influnccer, Earl Pitts American.
Thank you America,
EPA
Mark Anderson
November 10, 2023 at 10:45 am
Dean’s always been upset about his last name.
Southern Historian
November 15, 2023 at 6:46 pm
Maybe he could change it to “Confederate.”
Michael K
November 10, 2023 at 11:04 am
The “Lost Cause” movement was, and is, revisionist history. The placement and intent of these monuments was to glorify traitors, white supremacists, and insurrectionists, and to intimidate Black people in the Jim Crow era. It’s no coincidence that the placement of these statues is often adjacent to lynching sites. I suggest visiting the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery to learn more. Or, simply imagine traveling to Germany and finding monuments to Nazi leaders.
Seber Newsome III
November 10, 2023 at 5:46 pm
Representative Dean Black and Senator Johnathan Martin are our heroes today. Protecting historical symbols is very important. No one is stopping the other side from putting up monuments to famous black men and women, but, they don’t want to do that, only tear down ours. Well, that time is over. This is a new day in Florida. Deo Vindice
MH/Duuuval
November 10, 2023 at 11:19 pm
Please take “your” monuments down and put them on “your” property. They can be yours for free — unlike the Africans held in slavery for 250 years in the US who were turned loose after four years of bloody combat without a pot to piss in.
Your ignorance is bliss
November 12, 2023 at 7:35 pm
MH/Duuuuval, did you know that blacks sold their own people into slavery??? whites did not run Into the jungles to capture them. and did you know that Governor William Pope Duval’s goal , was to bring plantations from neighboring states with their slaves to Florida. So when people yell duuuuvalll, I laugh every time
MH/Duuuval
November 12, 2023 at 8:31 pm
What’s your point, klansman?
There’s hardly a white Florida elected official until the last few decades who wasn’t a dyed-in-the-wool white racist. (Florida had the highest per capita lynching rate in the US until after WWII.)
Taking Duuval as our battle cry is preferable to bragging about Andrew Jackson, father of the Trail of Tears and large slavehold.
Gov. Broward (1905-10) from Duval Country campaigned on a promise to send Blacks to Africa.
Rick Whitaker
November 11, 2023 at 5:32 am
so you admit to being a maga cultist, white christian nationalist?
SWN
November 11, 2023 at 10:00 pm
Southern White Nationalist
Racist Nixon
November 11, 2023 at 11:42 am
Angie Nixon is a racist in my opinion . She blames monuments, for the shooting at the dollar general, that is so stupid. What does she blame when blacks kill blacks at record levels in Jacksonville? She and one other would not support Israel against Hamas, that says it all.
My Take
November 11, 2023 at 3:29 pm
The higots who raised the monuments to intimidate black Americans a century or more ago , after defeating much of Reconstruction, could not have dreamed that eltected black citiizens could be driving eventually tearing them down.
MH/Duuuval
November 12, 2023 at 8:36 pm
Ironically, the driving force behind the monument building epoch was the Daughters of the Confederacy. That’s why the monument to white Southern women in Jax is so pathetic: One-quarter of the African American population after the Civil War was mixed race, according to the Census — and we know it wasn’t the Daughters who had done the deed.
The Truth
November 13, 2023 at 6:08 pm
you are wrong once again MH/Duuuval.. The United Confederate Veterans along with the State of Florida put up the Women of the Southland Monument. Both paid for half the costs, so, I guess the state of Florida owns it??
MH/Duuuval
November 14, 2023 at 5:55 pm
My original reply was censored. I merely wanted to point out the the ladies of the Confederacy had husbands, brothers, sons, and cousins as well as casual white friends who raped endlaved African women.
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