Confederate statue finds new home
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s shunned statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, on display at the U.S. Capitol for almost a century, may have found a new home Thursday.
A Florida Department of State panel approved a proposal by the Lake County Historical Society and Museum to pick up the tab and move the statue to its building in Tavares, not far from the theme parks and other tourist attractions of Central Florida.
But the society’s president said that in moving the general, he also is acknowledging the complexity of honoring any vestige of the Confederacy.
“We’re not throwing it in the public’s face,” said Bob Grenier, who is also the museum’s curator. “You’ll have to come to the museum, and go into the gallery” where Smith’s statue will be displayed with other military monuments and a marker explaining the role of slavery in the Civil War.
Florida lawmakers in 2016 approved replacing the Smith statue in Washington amid the nation’s rising re-evaluation of Confederate memorials.
A panel was created to recommend possible replacements for Smith — with Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature agreeing this year to add a statue of educator and civil rights icon Mary McLeod Bethune to the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall collection.
Smith’s statue had been in the hall since 1922, when it joined one representing John Gorrie, an early developer of refrigeration and air conditioning, placed there by Florida in 1914.
Other proposals Thursday were made by Dr. Wayne Wood, of Jacksonville, who wanted to move the statue to his Riverside Avenue home; and Thomas Graham, representing the St. Augustine Foundation, although he said the organization had not taken formal action on seeking the statue.
Grenier presented much of what the State Department said it was looking for in deciding on a new site for the monument.
“The statue is going to be there forever, taken care of,” said Grenier, who touted Lake County’s central location and proximity to other tourist attractions, along with the museum’s facility.
The statue would be housed indoors, a plus for
‘The statue is going to be there forever, taken care of.’ Bob Grenier, Curator, Lake County Historical Society and Museum
any bronze monument; and the museum is located downstairs from the Lake County Sheriff ’s Department, ensuring that security was on hand to shield the Smith statue from possible vandalism, Grenier said.
The curator said he also had the support of the Lake County Commission.
“They told me, ‘Go get it, Bob,’” Grenier said.
The cost of moving the statue from Washington and setting up a new display could reach $10,000, he said. But Grenier said the nonprofit historical society would support the payment.
Lake County was home to a notorious racist episode in Florida history, when four black men were wrongly accused of rape in 1949, then tortured, and either murdered or wrongfully imprisoned.
The Florida Legislature last year issued a rare apology to the families of the so-called Groveland Four, who now are all dead.
One of the State Department panelists, Steve Birtman, with the Florida Histor- ical Commission, acknowledged Lake County’s “dark history.” But he said that didn’t rule it out as a place for the Confederate general’s statue.
“It’s got a positive history as well,” Birtman said.
The exchange of statues — Smith for Bethune — is scheduled for 2020, but is still subject to further federal approvals.
Meanwhile, Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach is helping spearhead fundraising efforts for the Bethune statue.
More than $250,000, or just over half of the $400,000 needed to create the statue, has been raised, including a recent $50,000 donation from local insurance company Brown and Brown, B-CU trustee and statue fundraising committee Co-chairwoman Nancy Lohman said.
Fort Lauderdale-based master sculptor Nilda Comas has selected Italian marble for the statue.
Comas has studied nearly 300 pictures and even audio recordings in her efforts to portray Bethune’s likeness, Lohman said.
“I’m filled with joy about the passion and the admiration the artist has for Mary McLeod Bethune because I feel like that will come forward in her artistic creation,” Lohman said.