Walking up Palafox, you could see the heavy police presence and fencing.
By the time I arrived at Lee Square downtown, the Pensacola Confederate memorial rally had already peaked and dissipated. A few hardcore stragglers, though, persisted in hollering through a bullhorn about “heritage” and shit.
Lee Square (as in Robert E.) was renamed from “Florida Square” in 1889, though Lee had no real ties to the city.
As The Pulse Gulf Coast notes, the square was renamed after former Confederates took over the city and dissolved the government:
“In 1885, four years before Florida Square was renamed for Lee, Florida Gov. Edward Aylesworth Perry — a Democrat, Pensacola native, and Confederate veteran — convinced the state legislature to revoke Pensacola’s charter, effectively seizing control of the city government. The legislature dissolved the Republican city government and replaced it with the “Provisional Municipality of Pensacola,” governed by a state-appointed commission which Perry filled with Democrats. It’s this body that renamed the park and approved plans to erect the Confederate monument.”
The monument’s base honors Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Confederate Secretary of Navy Stephen R. Mallory and Confederate general Edward Aylesworth Perry, even though Pensacola played only a small part in the Civil War, having been under Confederate rule for only sixteen months.
The south side of the statue salutes “Our Confederate Dead” with an inscription:
“The Uncrowned Heroes of the Southern Confederacy, whose joy was to suffer and die for a cause they believed to be just. Their unchallenged devotion and matchless heroism shall continue to be the wonder and inspiration of the ages.”
One of a handful of supporters of the Confederate memorial speaks to the waning crowd following a larger gathering earlier.
As we arrived at the tail end of the event, around twenty counter-protesters stuck it out to shout at the dozen or so remaining monument defenders. According to the Pensacola News Journal, earlier in the day the total crowd on both sides was approximately 300 people.
The last speaker of the afternoon told us all about a popular black singer who “didn’t need to take to the streets and protest, because she reached out to us all with her singing and dancing.” The message I received was that this fellow considered her an acceptable Negro, because she entertained white folk, and didn’t make waves.
Per reports, there was little violence and only was one arrest, when a pro-monument protester knocked a megaphone out of the hands of a counter-protester.
As the stragglers rolled up their Confederate flags and headed off to their RVs and trucks, one pro-monument guy walked past us, nuzzling a tiny pug puppy. I made eye contact with a woman taking photos next to me, sharing the oddity of the moment.
“Puppies for Racism,” she said, shaking her head.
An angry father walks away, decrying hatred, using the rally as a teaching moment for his young son.
1 comment for “Pensacola Confederate Memorial Rally – August 26, 2017”