A Fort Myers state senator and a Jacksonville state representative have both introduced bills that would punish local officials who attempt to have Confederate memorials removed.
Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Fort Myers Republican, filed his bill Thursday.
Martin's measure, to be aired during the 2024 legislative session that starts Jan. 9, calls for the protection of historical monuments and memorials and has been named the "Historical Monuments and Memorials Protection Act".
The bill (SB 1122) would providing limitations and requirements regarding the relocation of historical monuments and memorials by local governments; authorizing placement of contextual markers or plaques near monuments or memorials under certain conditions; prohibiting certain acts concerning historical monuments and memorials; providing civil penalties for officials who engage in certain actions; providing for suspension or removal of such officials in certain circumstances, etc.
Martin's legislation is a companion — which has retroactivity to Oct. 1, 2020 — to one introduced earlier this year, HB 395, by Jacksonville's Republican state representative Dean Black.
It's not clear if that date would have an effect on Lee County namesake's Robert E. Lee monument that was removed from downtown Fort Myers in 2020.
The Orlando Sentinel reported Friday that Black is pushing his measure to protect monuments, including memorials to the Confederacy, and punish local officials who remove them. He said his bill is retroactive and seeks to restore monuments removed by local governments after Jan. 1, 2017.
“It is history, and history belongs to all Floridians,” the Sentinel quoted Black. “We have started tearing down statues and memorials for all sorts of things. This is cancel culture. What we are trying to do is right the wrongs of cancel culture as they have been expressed against our public art.”
A Dec. 5 article by Bill Cotteral from the News Service of Florida said HB 395 forbids removal of statues, plaques and other public markers honoring great figures of Florida’s past and means to stop cities and counties from uprooting monuments to Civil War generals and other prominent Old South leaders.
“It is the intent of the Legislature that the state not allow a historical monument or memorial to be removed, damaged or destroyed. Accurate history belongs to all Floridians in perpetuity,” Black’s bill states.
Cotteral's article said the proposed legislation provides that “a contextual plaque or marker may be placed near the monument or memorial,” to explain that some honoree was actively engaged in a rebellion against Lincoln’s government, or that a long-ago governor or senator was a seething segregationist. But the clarifying markers would have to be pre-cleared by the state.
The Orlando Sentinel quoted opposition comments from state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville whop said Confederate memorials were erected to “scare and intimidate the Black community post-slavery."
She continued: “It is a horrible bill. It is meant to throw red meat at a base of voters at a time when they know it is an election year.”
Nixon added about the Confederate memorials: “We should not be uplifting losers who wanted to keep my people enslaved.”
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