A committee working to relocate the Confederate monument at the DeFuniak Springs courthouse has received a grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to support their efforts. Funds will be used to create a public awareness campaign.
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“We think it’s the right time to remove it,” said Drexel Harris, vice chairman of the Committee for Justice, Equality, and Fairness (CJEF).
This is the first time the SPLC awarded a grant toward a Confederate memorial issue, said Kimberly Allen, spokesperson for SPLC, in an email. More grants for similar work will be awarded in 2024.
The group has been quiet for a couple of years but has still been working behind the scenes. This grant gives the organization “some momentum,” said Harris.
“We’re trying to go in a different direction,” he added. “We’re not going to the hearts and minds. Since the courthouse is a place of business, we want to reach out to the business community.”
The monument, and the Confederate flag that flies beside it, have been debated for years in the county. In 2015, commissioners chose to replace the Confederate flag with a different and less overt version, called the Stars and Bars. The flag debate was put on the ballot in 2018 with nearly 65% of voters choosing to keep the flag. In June 2020, the commissioners voted 3-2 to keep the flag after a call from residents to remove it in light of the murder of George Floyd.
“Sixty-five percent of the people asked for that flag to stay,” said Walton County Commissioner Danny Glidewell at the June 2020 meeting. “To so cavalierly dismiss the will of the people for political expediency — just so we can go along with the crowd — is wrong.”
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Harris argues the Confederate monument and flag are not a good look for the county. And bad for business. In 2016, Tallahassee’s Chamber of Commerce canceled a conference in South Walton because of the county’s decision to replace one Confederate flag with another, instead of removing it altogether.
“Some people claim it’s heritage,” said Harris, who was born and raised in DeFuniak Springs. “But not all citizens consider that heritage. Some consider it to be more of a trauma.”
The monument in question is Florida’s first Confederate monument. It was erected in 1871 after a group of women raised $250 for the structure. It was placed at Valley Church in Eucheeanna years before the City of DeFuniak Springs was founded. When DeFuniak Springs was made the county seat, the monument was moved to the courthouse — about 10 miles from its origin.
“I find it funny the claim that the monument is to honor the war dead from the Civil War, but the war ended in 1865 and DeFuniak Springs wasn’t even a city then,” said Harris. “Native Americans were here.”
The flag was placed in 1964, the same year the Civil Rights Act was signed.
Harris said the committee has shifted their hopes for the monument to be destroyed and instead moved to Eucheeanna where it was first erected.
“It took some time for the committee to be OK with that,” said Harris. “They could even take it to the city cemetery — it would be less offensive there.”
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With the SPLC grant, the committee would like to raise public awareness — especially among tourists — about the monument and flag. The amount of the grant is unknown as SPLC does not publicize the information, said the spokesperson.
In 2022, Walton County had over 5.3 million visitors with an economic impact of $7.2 billion. Much of the tourism industry is in the south end of the county.
“Some people don’t know about it,” said Harris pointing out that the courthouse is approximately an hour away from the beach resorts that bring people to the area. “We plan to distribute flyers and create an ad campaign. We want to let tourists know.”
The controversy over Confederate memorials took new shape in 2015 after Dylann Roof murdered nine Black people attending Bible study at the historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The SPLC has been conducting an annual survey on Confederate memorials in the U.S. and even has a map of memorials noting which ones have been removed or renamed. Walton County is on the map alongside the City of Crestview’s Confederate Park monument and the City of Milton’s seal.
The committee would like to eventually see commissioners change their minds about the monument and flag before any state laws prohibit their work. Several states in the south have passed laws to block the removal of Confederate memorials. A similar bill in Florida, HB 395, called the Protection of Historical Monuments and Memorials, would prohibit the removal of monuments and memorials from public property.
“We want to do something now,” said Harris. “Once it becomes illegal (to remove a monument) that kills our efforts for a generation or two.”
