City work crews advanced on Hemming Park before sunrise. They caught the last Confederate within the park by surprise. The Confederate Monument that has stood since 1898, a sentinel to a heritage of hate and racism has fallen.
The monument was donated to the State of Florida by Charles C and Lucy Key Hemming.
The previous Friday, following a march by Jacksonville Jaguars from TIAA Bank Field to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, wide receiver Chris Conley spoke passionately about removing the monument and other such remnants of the Confederacy.
“Our revisionist history would tell us that it’s there to honor men fighting for state’s rights, but true history would tell us that in the cornerstone addressed, Alexander Stevens said that our states are built on the fact that the negro is inferior and slavery and subordination is his normal and natural state. That’s true history,” Conley said.
THe monument was removed via executive order from Mayor Lenny Curry who is scheduled to speak later today.