Governor backs monument removal preemption

Governor Ron DeSantis said he supports the push in the Florida Legislature to prohibit local governments from removing historical statues and monuments during a press conference in Jacksonville Thursday.

“I think it’s totally appropriate for the legislature to say, you know what, we’re going to stop the madness,” said DeSantis. “I heard people in Jacksonville want to take down Andrew Jackson. What, are we going to rename the city? I mean, come on.”

But the current proposals wouldn’t only protect monuments like Jacksonville’s Andrew Jackson statue.

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They would also apply to those like the two Confederate statues taken down in Jacksonville last year.

Wells Todd with Take Em Down Jax spent years fighting for the removal of those monuments.

“This is a bill that’s been passed in some form or another in a number of southern states to continue to celebrate the Confederacy,” said Todd.

The bills in the Florida House and Senate are currently not aligned.

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In the House, State Representative Dean Black (R-Yulee) is carrying a bill that would prohibit any future removals.

Black’s bill also includes civil fines for local officials that buck the preemption and threatens to withhold state arts and culture funding from municipalities that remove monuments.

“We should add to our history, not subtract from it,” said Black during the bill’s first committee hearing in the House earlier this week.

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The legislation in the Senate would threaten local officials who remove monuments with removal from office.

The legislation would also apply retroactively by requiring monuments taken down since October of 2020, including the Confederate monuments removed in Jacksonville, to be put back up.

“Going back to 2020 isn’t that far. Still, many of those monuments are available,” said Senate sponsor Johnathan Martin his bill’s first committee stop.

When Action News Jax asked the Governor whether he supported the idea of putting monuments back up, he said he “didn’t know” and would have to look at the proposals.

“I know there’s been some controversy here in this area. I think it’s been relatively minor, but my view is you don’t take down. And so, if someone is taking down I think that’s a mistake,” said DeSantis.

Todd said he expects the legislation will be watered down as it moves through the process, but hopes in the end neither version of the bill passes.

“They celebrated the false ideology of white supremacy. So, to defend these statues and keep them up, it can only mean one thing to me. And that is Dean Black and DeSantis support what these statues stand for,” said Todd.

Black told Action News Jax Thursday negotiations with the Senate were still ongoing.

While he couldn’t say what the final product will end up looking like, he did say he believes it will end up being “one of the strongest” laws of its kind in the country.

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