Moving Confederate monuments from park space gains backing in Jacksonville, poll finds
Support for moving Confederate monuments from city-owned land in Jacksonville is higher than for keeping them where they are, but the issue continues to carve a sharp divide on political and racial lines, the latest University of North Florida poll finds.
The UNF poll released Monday found 50% of respondents saying it's time to move Confederate monuments off public spaces and 42% saying leave them. That's a flip from a UNF poll in February that showed 45% of respondents supporting removal and 51% opposed to moving them.
Mayor Donna Deegan said during the campaign she wants to move the monuments from public spaces and she's repeated that position when asked about it at town hall meetings. City Council has shown no interest in taking up the matter, however, which has languished without a decision for almost two years since City Council withdrew legislation by then-Mayor Lenny Curry to move a Confederate monument out of Springfield Park.
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UNF Public Opinion Research Lab faculty director Michael Binder said that based on the poll released Monday, support for moving the monuments seems to be growing.
"As you'd expect, this is largely split along party lines with 77% of Democrats in support and 73% of Republicans opposed," Binder said.
The party split carries over to City Hall. Deegan, a Democrat, supports moving the Confederate monument that's stood since 1915 in Springfield Park.
“I think it’s very, very hard to have unity in a city…if somebody has a monument up to basically a time when you weren’t even considered a person. That would be very, very difficult for you and your family to walk by that every day in your neighborhood,” Deegan said at a town hall in Mandarin in August. “I think that there is a place for those things to be put in proper context, not in the middle of a city park where folks have to walk by and see it everyday.”
The Republican-dominated City Council that was in office through the end of June vowed to make a decision on whether to move or leave the monument but never did. The new GOP-controlled City Council that took office July 1 has not taken any position or indicated it will take any votes on the monument.
The UNF poll released Monday shows voters not affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties favor moving the monuments with 52% in support and 35% against.
In the racial breakdown of the poll's findings, 37% of white respondents want Confederate monuments off public spaces, 76% of Black respondents say it's time to move Confederate monuments, and 60% of Hispanic respondents hold that view.
A May 2021 poll by UNF showed 51% in favor versus 49% against moving them. The highwater mark in public opinion for removal from public spaces came in June 2020 when 65% of Jacksonville voters wanted to see that happen.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Poll finds support in Jacksonville for moving Confederate monuments
