Jacksonville Removes Confederate Statue Referenced Last Week by Jaguars' Chris Conley

During last Friday's peaceful team-wide march through Jacksonville, Jaguars wide receiver Chris Conley called attention to a nearby Confederate monument in Jacksonville. Now the monument which stood at Hemming Park, only 1.5 miles away from TIAA Bank Field, has been partially dismantled by the City of Jacksonville.

According to First Coast News, the bronze statue topper and plaques which honored Confederate soldiers at the top of the monument were removed by the city before sunrise on Tuesday morning, just hours before Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette was set to lead a peaceful protest walk through the city.

The column has reportedly stood at Hemming Park since 1898, and its removal indicates a shift in the community following the Jaguars' team march. Past calls to remove the statue fell on deaf ears, but less than a week after Conley's speech, there was action from the city and mayor Lenny Curry.

The dismantled monument was called into question by Conley last Friday as he gave an impassioned speech on the steps of the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office during the Jaguars' march.

"We cannot allow comfortability with revisionist history to disarm our minds and weaken our convictions. A confederate monument sits a couple of blocks from here, praising the south’s dark past," Conley said Friday. "Our revisionist history would tell us that it’s there to honor men fighting for states’ rights. But true history would tell us that, in the Cornerstone Address, Alexander Stevens said that our states are built on the fact that the negro is inferior, and slavery and subordination is its normal and natural state. That’s true history.

"This monument sits a block from where the Ax Handle Saturday happened in Jacksonville. A block from it, reminding people in this city of what’s happened to them. True history would remind people that not only Confederate sympathizers butchered black people in the streets, but police joined them too."

Other Confederate monuments throughout the city will eventually be removed as well, according to Action News Jax.

Mayor Lenny Curry: “All confederate monuments will be removed in the city.” In the early morning hours today, a statue and plaque honoring fallen Confederate soldiers in Hemming Plaza came down. https://t.co/mvXguFLsjU @ActionNewsJax
— Paige Kelton (@PaigeANjax) June 9, 2020

Jacksonville's team march, which included coaches, players, front office members, and team employees marching together in Black Lives Matter shirts, was the result of recent rampant acts of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States, specifically the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

“Watching the events starting with Ahmaud Arbery, the video when it got released. I sat in my house upstairs in my office and I just began to cry because I saw someone who looked like me, someone who looked like my brother, someone who looked like my friends get shot down and fall on the street like an animal. That hurt me, because I’ve seen it time and time again," Conley said last week.

Floyd died last Monday in the custody of Minneapolis law enforcement officers after police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him down with his knee on the back of his neck. The incident was captured on a video that went viral, showing Floyd repeating stating that he couldn't breathe.

Chauvin, who was one of four police officers detaining Floyd at the time, was arrested last Friday and is now charged with second-degree murder. The other officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao, have been arrested and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Since Floyd's death, there have been protests throughout the United States to push back against police brutality and racial inequality. Leaders in sports have also spoken out against the racial injustice, with Jaguars owner Shad Khan released an op-ed on Wednesday to address Floyd's death, racism, and the need for change.