Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 6-27-17

Feature
Mayor, City Council Responds To Keeping Confederate Statue
Confederate Statue Florida Public Archaeology Network
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last Wednesday, a ma- jority vote of the Hillsbor- ough County Board of Commissioner voted 4-3 to keep a Confederate statue. The statue is located in downtown Tampa, but on property belonging to Hills- borough County.
Since the historic vote, national media has identi- fied Tampa as the place vot- ing to keep a statue that endorses racism, segrega- tion, and discrimination.
Thursday morning, Mayor Bob Buckhorn is- sued the following state- ment: “There is no honor in treason and there is no valor in enslaving people because of their race. That statue represents the worst of hu- manity, not the Tampa we
MAYOR BOB BUCKHORN
aspire to be. This decision doesn’t speak for our city or the people that I represent.”
The subject was also dis- cussed by members of the City Council at the end of their meeting.
Council Chairwoman Yvonne “Yoli” Capin said, “I cannot reiterate enough: This was a war that was fought in order to en- slave people and the right to enslave people, and that we cannot honor, nor should we honor. It’s shameful that it is part of our history, but it is. We have to recognize that it is part of our history, but we don’t have to put up monu- ments to it.”
Councilman Harry Cohen was concerned about the impact of future business in the City. “These decisions can have all sorts of unintended conse- quences. Businesses can de- cline to come here. People can decline to visit here. Conventions can decline to bring their business here be- cause they see the commu- nity as acting in a non-welcoming way.”
Councilman Frank Reddick had to leave early due to a family emergency. When contacted by the Sen- tinel, Councilman Red- dick said, “First, I would
COUNCILMAN FRANK REDDICK
like to make it known that this is not the City of Tampa. “This is very disgraceful and very disgusting. The four members of the Com- mission showed their true colors by putting this mes-
sage out there.
“It’s interesting that New
Orleans and Orlando re- moved theirs, but Hillsbor- ough County showed they want to preserve theirs. Being in Tampa, I thought we were making improve- ments in race relations. But
CHAIRWOMAN YOLI CAPIN
it takes just one incident such as this to show that for every step we take forward, we take a step backward. This shows we still have a race relations problem in Hillsborough County.”
The Commission Vote Commissioner Les Miller, Jr., made a motion to remove the statue that has been in place since 1911. He was supported by Commis- sioners Pat Kemp and Al
Higginbotham.
COUNCILMAN HARRY COHEN
Commission Chairman Stacy White represented the opposition and was sup- ported by Commissioners Ken Hagan, and Sandra Murman, Victor Crist. All four are Republicans whose terms end in 2018.
In addition to keeping the statue in place, Chair- man White was successful in passing a motion to pre- vent any “war monuments” from being removed from property owned by Hillsbor- ough County.
TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 3