I testified in favor of preserving the General Wm. Loring monument, but adding context, including a seated statue of UF-educated folklorist Stetson Kennedy, who infiltrated KKK and reported on it, sitting with St. Augustine Movement leader Dr. Robert S. Hayling, D.D.S. and Barbara Vickers, looking at the Loring monument, contemplating the progress we've made. See my comments below.
Let's work together, searching for middle ground, compromise and healing.
In the 1960s, the Record's rebarbative then-owner, A.H. "HOPPY TEBEAULT, JR." was a brute force for evil and against civil rights, printing locations of KKK rallies in advance, printing Mayor Shelley's fatwa against demonstrations, threatening students with arrest and lifetime blacklisting, and printing the names and addresses of black children desegregating local schools, resulting in firings, evictions and firebombing.
TEBEAULT was later Vice President at Flagler College, hired as a liaison to the "business community" and advising students, including future Record Opinion Editor JAMES SUTTON, censoring the student newspaper like Republican Lord of All He Surveyed.
]
Enough censorship in St. Augustine, please.
Another St. Augustine monument debated.
By Sheldon Gardner
Posted Mar 16, 2018 at 8:15 PM
Updated Mar 17, 2018 at 6:15 AM
St. Augustine Record
Several months after the city of St. Augustine decided to keep its memorial for Confederate soldiers, University of Florida officials opened the door Friday morning for debate on what the future should be for a Confederate-related monument under the university’s care.
The forum was the Governor’s House Cultural Center and Museum, where members of the UF Historic St. Augustine board meet regularly — the board is charged with caring for state-owned historic properties in the city. The future of the memorial to Confederate Gen. William Loring in downtown St. Augustine is in their hands, said Allen Lastinger, chair of the board.
The board made no decision on Friday and made few if any comments. The event was about hearing from the public and people at the heart of the debate whom the board invited to speak, including St. Paul AME Church pastor the Rev. Ron Rawls and St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver.
Board members are expected to discuss the monument at their April 13 meeting, Lastinger said.
About three dozen people sat in the audience, including St. Augustine residents and city officials. From both the invited speakers and members of the audience, views were divided on whether the Loring memorial should be honored or banished from display in the public square.
The Loring memorial is on the west side of Governor’s House near the corner of Cordova and King streets. It bears the image of American and Confederate flags, and the memorial remembers Loring’s service in the Civil War and other conflicts. Loring’s ashes are buried at the site.
James Cusick, curator of UF’s P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History, said Loring was born in North Carolina and grew up in St. Augustine. Loring joined a militia at 14 years old and had a long military career that included fighting in Second Seminole War and serving in the Egyptian Army, as well as serving in the Confederate forces.
Another memorial is nearby in the Plaza de la Constitucion and lists the names of more than 40 men who died serving the Confederacy. In October, city commissioners voted to keep that monument and organize a contextualization committee to find a way to add historical context to the monument.
Shaver defended that work on Friday, sharing from her background and describing the process that led to the commission’s decision.
She said most of the people she talked to supported keeping the monument, and she said, like St. Augustine’s Plaza, other towns have have memorials to people who died in wars.
“It’s a simple reference to people giving their lives for the place they came from,” Shaver said.
Rawls, who has led multiple protests against both monuments, provided a timeline of racial history including emancipation and history of Confederate monuments in the South. He also touched on some modern-day issues, such as a Facebook post from a man who wrote that hoped Rawls would be shot.
“I simply request that my alma matter, University of Florida, one of the top research universities in the nation, provide just leadership in a city identified by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the most racist cities in America,” Rawls said.
Timothy Johnson, professor of religion at Flagler College, another invited speaker, also supported the monument’s removal but recommended leaving Loring’s remains on-site and marking them with a “simple tombstone.”
Floyd Phillips, president of the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center and an invited speaker, recommended the Loring memorial be removed.
“The symbolism, to me, is non-acceptance of African-Americans as citizens in this community,” Phillips said.
Jill Pacetti, a relative of a man listed on the city’s Confederate memorial, cited an online petition that gathered wide support in favor of keeping both monuments, and she said she’s formed a coalition in favor of keeping monuments and creating a city ordinance to protect and preserve memorials to veterans.
“I know that I speak on behalf of several thousand residents of St. Augustine and St. Johns County when I say that we should be honored to have the remains of St. Augustine’s general buried in our soil,” she said.
Comments
UF Historic St Augustine delays action on monument
The Friday morning meeting of the UF Historic St Augustine Board of Directors was called to order by Chairman Allen L. Lastinger, Jr. promptly at 10:00 a.m. But, if anyone at the table was expecting a “short meeting”, that was not to be.
Security was higher than normal. St Augustine Chief of Police Barry Fox and three officers were assigned inside and outside the meeting. The north and south lobby doors to the building, which provide access to limited public restrooms downtown, were locked. Not only were audience members searched and checked with a metal detector before being allowed in, they were held at bay from the five speakers and members of the Board in a cordoned area of folding chairs.
Then, within 20-minutes of its commencement, Shirley Williams-Collins, a retired teacher and photographer, passed out and collapsed on the floor bringing Lincolnville Museum speaker Floyd Phillips’ comments to a halt. Chief Fox and several nearby audience members came to Collins’ aid, one maintaining chest compressions until emergency medical personnel arrived. Collins was stabilized and transferred to a stretcher, then transported by St Johns County EMS to Flagler Hospital.
There were originally seven invited speakers asked by the Board for their comments. Bill Mignon, a candidate for re-election to the St Johns County School Board, was invited but did not speak. Mignon told Historic City News editor Michael Gold that he discussed it with school district Superintendent Tim Forson and decided against addressing the Board. Lastinger announced that another invited speaker, Rev. Lee, was confirmed but became a no-show.
The remaining five speakers were:
- James G Cusick
- Timothy J. Johnson
- Floyd Phillips
- Ronald Rawls Jr
- Mayor Nancy Shaver
Cusick was first to speak. He pointed out several facts for consideration by the Board. He presented a military and biographical history of General William Wing Loring. Cusick also identified issues that he sees for any resolution that involves relocating or altering the monument in Loring Plaza by UF Historic St Augustine, Inc.
Issues pointed out by Cusick were the same as expressed by Historic City News in previous reporting. Two issues that stand in the way of UF Historic St Augustine doing anything with the memorial include lack of a clear path to ownership of the grave since its dedication in 1920, and a Florida law that provides criminal penalties against anyone who “willfully and knowingly excavates, exposes, moves, removes, or otherwise disturbs the contents of a grave or tomb”.
Liaison between the Board and the University, Ed Poppell, commented that research by the University of Florida indicates that title to the property was transferred from the federal government to the Trustees of the Internal Improvements Trust Fund of the State of Florida. The block of property from Cathedral Place to King Street, between Cordova Street and St George Street, was used as a post office prior to construction of the current building on King Street.
Although remaining living descendants of General Loring have expressed their wish that his remains not be disturbed or relocated, Poppell said that the University has not found any record of a partial deed transferring rights for the gravesite; so, they are comfortable that there is no enforceable claim on the grave by other parties.
The second issue presents because Loring’s remains are physically buried with the memorial. The governing law appears to be §872.02(2) F. S. which states, “A person who willfully and knowingly excavates, exposes, moves, removes, or otherwise disturbs the contents of a grave or tomb commits a felony of the second degree.”
Flagler College religion teacher Timothy Johnson expressed his wish that the monument be taken down. Floyd Phillips is husband to Regina Phillips who manages the Lincolnville Museum and sits on the seven-member Confederate Memorial Contextualization Advisory Committee selected by City Manager John Regan and approved by the city commission. He also wants to see the monument taken down. Ronald Rawls Jr, a Gainesville resident whose wife is an employee of the University, is at the center of failed attempts to remove the city-owned Confederate Memorial, and now the Loring Park Memorial.
Mayor Nancy Shaver was the last invited panel member to speak. She did not speak in favor or opposition to the Loring monument or its removal. Instead, she shared the process used and tabulated figures provided by the City of St Augustine as to the number of speakers for-and-against preservation of the monument still standing in Constitution Plaza. She also addressed volumes of hundreds of e-mail correspondence, near and far, that overwhelmingly supported preservation of the Civil War Memorial. Detractors presented about 1,000 petition signatures to take down the city memorial; however, a group of residents represented by Jill Pacetti as their spokesperson, presented an online poll that garnered some 11,000+ signatures in support of keeping the memorial artifact.
Because the terms of Lease Agreement #2734 between the State of Florida Board Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, as Lessor, and the University of Florida Board of Trustees, as Lessee, do not provide for the removal of any of the real property subject to the lease, the only action the Board of UF Historic St Augustine could take would be to make a non-binding recommendation to the Department of State for consideration by the Florida cabinet.
The enabling legislation for the lease with UF is, in part, §267.1735(1) F. S. which clarifies “the goal for contracting with the University of Florida is to ensure long-term preservation and interpretation of state-owned historic properties in St. Augustine while facilitating an educational program at the University of Florida that will be responsive to the state’s needs for professionals in historic preservation, archaeology, cultural resource management, cultural tourism, and museum administration and will help meet needs of St. Augustine and the state through educational internships and practicums.
The UF Historic St Augustine Board of Directors will take up discussion of their plans for the monument at their next meeting in April.
xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment