Symbols of white supremacy do not belong in public places in our city. We have been trying to
remove the most visible of these symbols and have been met with fierce resistance from
counter protestors and apathy from our city council. We want to take this time to enumerate
exactly why now is the time to relocate the Confederate monument to Soldiers Rest, regardless
of the cost.
-The decision to place the monument in front of the courthouse was purely political. After the
end of Reconstruction, Jim Crow-era politics ushered in a new wave of anti-Black legislation
aimed at keeping Black people from voting, marrying white people, riding in public transportation
with white people, and rising to political office. Placing a monument in front of the courthouse
was a visible reminder to Black people that they were still not accepted as equals. While the
cemetery was sought as a potential place for the monument, it was not central enough to
remind Black citizens that 40 years after they’d gained their freedom, they still were not
considered equals.
-The dedication speech made at the unveiling of the monument reads, in part:
Their civilization differs from ours in one essential that creates an impassable barrier. They look
upon a Negro as a white man with a colored skin and believe education to be the one thing
needful. We of the south know better. No other people know him so well or love him so well, but
nowhere here is he accorded social equality. When the highest representative of Northern
civilization invites the highest representative of negro civilization to sit at his table as his social
equal, he digs a gulf between us too wide and deep for us to go to them or for them to come to
us. Into the form of man God breathed the breath of eternal life and he became a living soul, so
separate from the manlike forms around them that when the children of Adam, sons of God by
virtue of that miraculous inspiration, saw that the daughters of men were fair and married them,
he sent a deluge that destroyed the mongrel race. We are the sons of God. Let no second
deluge be brought upon the world on our account.
Not only were these horrendous words read at the dedication of the monument in 1903, the
base of the monument cemented these words to the cause with the inscription, “Unveiled with
appropriate ceremonies April 25, 1903.”
Confederate monuments have no place in front of government buildings or in the public
downtown areas of cities. They are not tools for us to learn from. They are symbols of
oppression. As the Florence City Council and Mayor, you need to publicly state why this
monument to white supremacy has no place at our courthouse, and speak to the moral
issue. Also, state why you will not move a monument that represents white supremacy
and oppression. We need you to clearly and publicly denounce the White Supremacist
language used in the 1903 dedication speech.
Your apathy and inaction have led to violent confrontations that will continue to escalate as
Counter protestors continue to gather and harass citizens demanding relocation with chants of
“KKK All the Way” and parades of Confederate flags. We understand what they law says. Hiding
behind the laws of a state that once legalized slavery and public segregation is not good
enough. We are better than this.