Florida's Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy

{{short description|Outdoor memorial to Confederate women in Jacksonville, Florida's Springfield Park}}

{{Infobox monument

| name = Florida's Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy

| image = Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy.jpg

| caption = The monument in 2013

| designer = Allen George Newman

| type = Sculpture

| location = Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.

| mapframe = yes

| coordinates = {{Coord|30.33481|-81.65447|format=dms|type:landmark_region:US-FL|display=inline,title}}

}}

Florida's Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy, also known as A Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy and the Monument to the Women of the Confederacy,{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9X51_A_Tribute_to_the_Women_of_the_Southern_Confederacy_Jacksonville_FL|title=A Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy - Jacksonville, FL - American Civil War Monuments and Memorials on Waymarking.com|website=www.waymarking.com}}{{cite web|title=Florida's Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy, (sculpture).|url=https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!313445~!0#focus|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=August 18, 2017}} was an outdoor Confederate memorial installed in Jacksonville, Florida's Springfield Park.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7m1AAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA203|title=Confederate Veteran|date=19 August 2017|publisher=S.A. Cunningham|via=Google Books}}

The memorial was erected in 1915, during the peak of Confederate monument-building, part of widespread campaigns to promote and justify Jim Crow laws in the South.{{Cite journal |last1=Leib |first1=Jonathan I. |last2=Webster |first2=Gerald R. |last3=Webster |first3=Roberta H. |date=December 1, 2000 |title=Rebel with a cause? Iconography and public memory in the Southern United States |journal=GeoJournal |language=en |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=303–310 |doi=10.1023/A:1014358204037 |bibcode=2000GeoJo..52..303L |issn=0343-2521 |s2cid=151000497}}{{cite news |last=Cox |first=Karen L. |date=August 16, 2017 |title=Analysis – The whole point of Confederate monuments is to celebrate white supremacy |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/16/the-whole-point-of-confederate-monuments-is-to-celebrate-white-supremacy/ |access-date=September 21, 2017}}{{Cite web |title=Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy |url=https://www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}} A plaque says the memorial honors women of the Confederate states who "sacrificed their all upon their country's altar" during the Confederacy's 1861-65 war to secede from the United States.

On December 27, 2023, the large statue in the monument and the smaller one on top were removed by order of Donna Deegan, the mayor of Jacksonville.{{Cite web |last=Micolucci |first=Vic |date=2023-12-27 |title=Historian: Springfield Park Confederate monument was put up to intimidate Black residents during Jim Crow era |url=https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/12/27/historian-springfield-park-confederate-monument-was-put-up-to-intimidate-black-residents-during-jim-crow-era/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=WJXT |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Frazier |first=Ashley Harding, Jim Piggott, Francine |date=2023-12-27 |title='Symbols matter': Confederate monument removed from Springfield Park on mayor's order |url=https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/12/27/work-begins-overnight-to-remove-confederate-monument-from-springfield-park/ |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=WJXT |language=en}}

Description and history

In 1912, the Florida division of the United Confederate Veterans voted to ask each Confederate veteran to contribute $5 ({{inflation|US|5|1912|fmt=eq}}) to fund a monument to the Confederacy's women, "who were the heroines of that struggle".{{cite news

|title=Monument to the Women of the Confederacy

|newspaper=Ocala Evening Star (Ocala, Florida)|date=9 Apr 1912|page=2

|first=T. D.

|last=Lancaster

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87840726/monument-to-women-of-the-confederacy/}}

The monument was designed in 1914 by sculptor Allen George Newman (1875–1940), and dedicated on October 26, 1915. The memorial's bronze sculptures were cast by Jno. Williams, Inc. and McNeel Marble Works served as the work's contractor.

Such early-20th-century Confederate memorials were "part and parcel of the initiation of legally mandated segregation and widespread disenfranchisement across the South", the American Historical Association (AHA) wrote in 2017. They "were intended, in part, to obscure the terrorism required to overthrow Reconstruction, and to intimidate African Americans politically and isolate them from the mainstream of public life."{{Cite web |title=AHA Statement on Confederate Monuments (August 2017) {{!}} AHA |url=https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-statement-on-confederate-monuments |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=www.historians.org}}

In 1992, the memorial's condition was deemed "treatment needed" by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program.

=Removal efforts=

In May 2018, the monument was cited among those targeted by the March for Change, a three-day, 40-mile (64-km) protest against Confederate monuments in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida.{{cite web

|title=Announcing the Launch of the Make It Right Project

|first=Kali

|last=Holloway

|date=June 3, 2018

|access-date=September 10, 2018

|url=https://independentmediainstitute.org/make-it-right-project-announcement/

|publisher=Independent Media Institute}} It is No. 10 on the Make It Right Project's list of Confederate memorials it wants to see removed.

In 2021, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry requested $1.3 million to dismantle the memorial, but the city council blocked the request.{{Cite web |last=Bauerlein |first=David |title=Confederate monument will stay in Jacksonville park after City Council withdraws legislation |url=https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2021/11/10/jacksonville-city-council-withdraws-legislation-confederate-monument-springfield/6339006001/ |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=The Florida Times-Union |language=en-US}} In 2022, the council adopted a one-year plan to host "community conversations" by mid-year; as of December, no such meetings had been held.{{Cite web |title=Jacksonville City Council promises but doesn't deliver on deciding fate of Confederate monuments |url=https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2022/11/29/jacksonville-city-council-has-yet-vote-confederate-monuments/10791144002/ |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=The Florida Times-Union |language=en-US}}

Ultimately, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund and anonymous donors donated $187,000 to 904WARD, a nonprofit organization, so that the statues on the monument could be removed. The removal work was done by ACON Construction on December 27, 2023.

File:Women of the Confederacy plaque, Jacksonville, FL, US.jpg|Plaque

File:Tribute to Women of the Confederacy, Confederate Park, Jacksonville.jpg|In May 2018

File:Confederate_Park,_Jacksonville,_FL,_US_(20).jpg|Inside