The Pensacola City Council will discuss next month the fate of the Confederate monument on South Palafox in Lee Square (which the mayor has suggested changing back to Florida Square). As that discussion nears, Mayor Robinson reflected on his participation as an Escambia County commissioner in 2014 on displaying a Confederate flag at the Pensacola Bay Center.
“I knew that was not a respectful way for us to represent our history,” Robinson said of the inclusion of the Confederate battle flag within the city’s traditional five-flags display, recalling that he suggested an alternative Confederate flag, the so-called star and bars, be displayed instead, and that ultimately the county decided to mirror whatever display the city selected (the Confederate flag was replaced with the state flag).
Comparing that 2014 discussion with the current conversation concerning the Confederate monument on Palafox, noting how public opinion shifts with time, the mayor held up a Pensacola News Journal editorial from that time, which described the scrubbing of the flag as a “ham-fisted maneuver” from a county commission that “overreacted.”
Robinson, whose family has roots in the Confederacy, said council may now decide to somehow address the monument on Palafox —“change may occur” —and stressed that the conversation needed to be had in a “respectful” manner.
“We want to do this the right way, and we’re going to do this the right way,” the mayor said, adding that there a potential that the monument could be relocated to St. John’s Cemetery, where there are a number of Confederate burial sites.
