JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Activists faced off on the steps of Jacksonville City Hall Tuesday over the city’s Confederate monuments.
It comes as Councilman Al Ferraro proposes letting voters decide what happens to the city’s confederate monuments -- and all other historic markers.
Civil rights activist Ben Frazier with the Northside Coalition has been outspoken about removing just those monuments in Jacksonville, which are linked to the confederacy.
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“The Ferraro proposal is a cowardly and dangerous idea. Why? Because it represents the local government’s – the city council’s continuing effort to simply beat around the bush, to delay, to kick the proverbial can down the road, and they should instead be standing up with integrity, courage, and having the moral conviction to remove the monuments with all deliberate speed,” Frazier told Action News Jax.
Seber Newsome and his group gathered at City Hall, too. They support Ferraro’s proposal -- that is, letting voters decide if all historic markers on city property should be eliminated.
“Ben Frazier and Wells Todd and his group, they’re telling a lie. These monuments were not put up to honor a lost cause; they were honoring soldiers,” Newsome said. “Even though there’s 40,000 more Democrats than Republicans, we want the people to vote on it. If they want them gone, so be it, if they want them to stay, let them stay...and I would like to see monuments put up for famous Black men and women in Jacksonville, too.”
On Friday, Ferraro explained to Action News Jax his push is to show that removing one monument can be a slippery slope -- leading to the removal of any type.
It was then that Ferraro also said he wasn’t expecting the city council to approve his proposal. If passed, voters would see it on the November ballot.
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