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Committee to Decide Future Home of Confederate Statute

June 28th, 2018 by Mike Vasilinda

Florida is getting closer to replacing the statue of a Confederate General who has represented the state in the U-S Capitol since 1922, but a committee meeting in the state Capitol must first decide where the confederate general will be relocated.

Florida sent Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith to the US Capitol’s statuary hall in 1922. Born in St. Augustine, he barely lived in the state. His claim to fame was that he commanded the last confederate force to surrender.

“And then fled the country after the Confederacy lost the Civil War,” said U.S. Representative Cathy Castor when we spoke with her last July.

Castor has been pushing for Smith’s removal since she was sent to Washington in 2006.

“General Kirby Smith is not an appropriate depiction of the great people of the state of Florida,” said Castor.

This year, lawmakers voted to replace Smith with Mary McLeod Bethune.

Die hard supporters of General Smith want him moved here to the Capitol Plaza, or inside the Capitol, but that’s not going to happen.

That’s because no agency or state official has suggested that’s a good idea.

“I know there are people on both sides of the issue that have very strong feelings,” said Towson Fraser with the Florida Arts Council.

Shortly after these picture were taken Fraser took his family to the Capitol and Smith had been moved.

“And was told he’s in an inaccessible area and you’re not allowed to go look at him,” said Fraser. “So it seems to me anyway that no matter where we put him here in Florida, he’s going to be in a more accessible publicly available place.”