Celebrate while Confederate monuments stand? Group plans Jacksonville protest same day as bicentennial

As Jacksonville's 200th birthday celebration continues Saturday with a downtown street festival, the city's often strained race relations will be on display as well.

A community group will stage a protest at City Hall the same day to focus public attention on Confederate monuments that haven't been removed, as well as what members and other organizations view as insufficient racial representation in the Jacksonville Historical Society's bicentennial planning.

"There is a lot of history they do not want to make public," Wells Todd, spokesman for Take 'Em Down Jax, said.

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Among the groups not included in 200th-birthday planning were two prominent civil rights groups — the Jacksonville chapter of the NAACP and the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, according to their leaders.

Good-faith effort to include diverse groups

NAACP President Isaiah Rumlin said he expected the group to receive an invitation "out of respect." But he said he was "not surprised" that the group failed to receive one.

The Black community — about one-third of the city population — being ignored in such decision-making processes is indicative of the state of local race relations, coalition President Ben Frazier said.

"This is nothing new," he said.

Planners of major city events "routinely ignore us and put us on the back burner," he said. "There are clear signs of white privilege, disrespect and racial discrimination. … Black shareholders should be actively recruited and invited to the table for all future planning of city events."

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Alan Bliss, CEO of the society, said he made a good-faith effort to include a diverse group of voices in bicentennial planning. He also said he attempted to contact Rumlin but was unsuccessful.

"I suppose there have been people who didn't get called," he said. "I don't know everybody."

Rumlin reiterated he never received any messages that Bliss was trying to contact him.

The street festival is the latest in a series of bicentennial events the society has planned this year. It will feature at least 50 booths, some of which will be manned by community groups telling their Jacksonville story. he goal was not to tell the city's story itself but provide space for its residents to do so, Bliss said.

Among the Black-led organizations involved by the society were Bethel Baptist Institutional Church; Edward Waters University, through history professor and society board member David Jamison; and 904Ward, a civic group working to end racism in Jacksonville.

904Ward "elevated the need to include the rich racial and ethnic diversity that has contributed to the city's 200-plus-year history,"  CEO Kimberly Allen, who is Black, said. "The best way for us to keep race at the forefront of our city’s history is to encourage Jacksonville residents to have critical and honest conversations about race."

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So the nonprofit launched the 200 Conversations for 200 Years campaign, which asks residents to help host discussions using 904WARD's The Race Cards, a deck of cards that prompt conversations about race.

"I love that groups are doing things on their own," Bliss said. "When groups ask us what are we doing for the bicentennial, I ask them, 'What are you doing?' It's not just about looking back at 200 years of Jacksonville but looking forward."

But Todd questions how the city can move forward while celebrating "200 years of existence with Confederate statues still standing."

"Five years now we have held rallies, teach-ins, history walks. It seems like nothing has moved the mayor or City Council," he said. "They keep bouncing this back and forth between one another."

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Meanwhile, multiple "racially motivated shootings" have taken place across the country and political leaders in Florida, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, appear to be supporting "right-wing" groups rather than addressing the concerns of the Black community, he said.

"They're perpetuating hate and divisiveness," he said.

City should remove symbols of 'racial hatred'

In 2020 Mayor Lenny Curry removed a statue of a Confederate solider from what's now called James Weldon Johnson Park across from City Hall. Todd said removing the soldier and related bronze plaques was not enough: Confederate language remains chiseled into the stone base, he said.

One side of the bottom of the monument states, "Confederate Memorial 1861-1865."

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Take 'Em Down Jax also wants the "Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy" monument removed from Springfield Park, where it has stood since 1915. But monument supporters have said repeatedly that Republican council members seeking re-election next year would pay a price at the polls if they favor removal.

This year the council is to begin a "community conversation" about Confederate monuments.

The monuments "represent racial hatred," and as long as they remain, Frazier said, Jacksonville has one foot in the past.

"The city has got to make up its mind that it is ready to move forward," he said.

bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109

IF YOU GO

• Bicentennial street festival: Noon to 10:30 p.m. from James Weldon Johnson Park in downtown Jacksonville to Riverfront Park, formerly The Landing. Activities include exhibits, booths, vendors, food trucks, musical entertainment, art exhibits, tours and fireworks. For the schedule, go to jax200.org. Admission is free; for tickets, go to bit.ly/39bocgo.

• Take' Em Down Jax rally: 2 p.m. in front of City Hall, 117 Duval St. Speeches will focus on Confederate monuments, as well as housing, women's rights and police reform. For updates, go to facebook.com/takeemdownjacksonville.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville group plans bicentennial protest over racial issues