City of St. Augustine to add ‘context’ to confederate memorial

Jacksonville, FL — City Commissioners in St. Augustine agree to a plan to keep the city's confederate monument in the Plaza de la Constitución.

The city will establish a committee of up to seven people to add historical context to the memorial, which has dozens of names of men who served and died.

City Manager John Regan proposed keeping the memorial with the added context and, following extensive public comments, city commissioners unanimously approved the recommendation.

“This is an opportunity for the city to bring the community together to continue working on social justice issues," Regan said.

Unrelated to the debate in St. Augustine, a poll of registered voters in Florida, conducted by the University of North Florida, shows 40% of respondents believe confederate monuments should remain in place.  47% believe they should be moved to museums, and 9% believe they should be removed entirely.

“As Tallahassee contends with newly introduced House Bill 235 dealing with Confederate statues, Floridians should take note of the partisan divisions on this issue”, said Michael Binder, faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab at UNF.

66% of registered Republicans polled believe they should stay, while 76% of registered Democrats believe they should be moved to museums or removed completely.