From the City Councilman Larry Johnson:
“I want to join Mayor Hayward in condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and all other hate groups. They are un-American and stand in opposition to the ideals upon which this country was founded. For many, Pensacola’s Confederate monument is a symbol of that hate and of a shameful period in our city’s past. I do not believe that the monument belongs in a public park overlooking our downtown. I absolutely support the mayor in his plans to remove the monument and hope that it can be moved to a museum or other appropriate location where it can be placed in the proper context.”
I think the point is the Mayor and Councilman Johnson are making a decision based on a series of knee-jerk reactions with the only goal of showing they can react that way too. There was no thought by anyone as to why those monuments were removed relative to any other monument. They chose the one that are easiest to remove as opposed to ones that were dedicated to the worst offenders. If you call them out on it they will not have any explanation as to how they arrived at that decision other than they saw others doing it.
President Jackson turned his back on his Cherokee blood brothers, after they helped him defeat the Creek and Seminoles. The Cherokee were the civilized tribe with their own written language and newspaper. They were promised citizenship for being loyal and fighting America’s enemies but they found gold in North Georgia and all promises were then broken. Jackson refused the follow the decision of the Supreme Court, where the Cherokee won their case against Georgia taking their property and then sent his soldiers to enforce the illegal (as defined by the Supreme Court) Indian Removal Act. Jackson’s actions led to the disaster called the “Trail of tears”, where the government stole the property of the Cherokees and force marched them to Oklahoma.
Eleanor,
Jackson is honored for being the first governor of the Florida territory and later president. Under your argument, few military leaders could ever be honored….but maybe that’s your point.
Andrew Jackson also slaughtered southeastern Indians at every opportunity. In addition, he ran the Creoles, that settled Pensacola and other Gulf coast towns to Louisiana. I personally,as a find his bust much more offensive than the Lee Square statue
I’m pretty indifferent on it, but it seems like they chose that monument because it’s an easy target, barely anyone notices it. If Johnson and Mayor Hayward were taking this seriously they would push for the removal of the bust of Andrew Jackson at Plaza Ferdinand and then encourage Jackson’s and Old Hickory to change their apparently racist names to something else. Jackson had far more slaves than than Lee ever did (or wanted) and he successfully thwarted insurrection before the war. Then, we should focus on changing Lee and Jackson Streets because they both sound as though they could be named after them. What about the civil war installations and forts? It seems like the removal of the statue of Lee is more ceremonial than any else unless we remove all of these other signs of the civil war that are supported by the public. If they don’t mention those on the list for removal we’ll all know this was just for show.