Tag Archives: In Memory of our Women of the Southland

the Robert Burns Monument in Springfield Park

Posted on December 31, 2022 | Leave a comment

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So why is there a monument to the Scottish national poet, Robert Burns, in Springfield Park, in the middle of Jax? It was the last of many such monuments placed around the country. And how is Rabbie Burns’s fandom different from that of Sir Walter Scott, whom Mark Twain blamed for the American Civil War?

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Tagged Allen George Newman, Burns Night Jacksonville, Burns Supper Jacksonville, Chamblin Bookmine, Confederate Park, Hogans Creek, In Memory of our Women of the Southland, James Stevens Maxwell, Mayor John T. Alsop, Robert Burns Association, Robert Burns Monument Jacksonville, Springfield Park, Tim Gilmore

2020 Protests Continue (Confessions, Consciousness, Change)

Posted on June 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

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For more than a week, the protests have flooded the streets, demanding police release body cam footage. This crowd does me good. In my depths, stories from decades before I was born churn a historical conscience. The Confederate monument has again been vandalized. I ask Donal Godfrey, whose house the KKK bombed when he was six years old, if this time really is different.

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Tagged Alexander Stephens, Black Lives Matter, Brittany Chrishawn, Donal Godfrey, George Floyd, In Memory of our Women of the Southland, J.B. Stoner, Jacksonville Community Action Committee, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Jamee Johnson, James Robinson, Jimbo Robinson, Josue Garriga, Ku Klux Klan, Kwame Jones, Lackawanna Elementary School, Lenny Curry, Mayor Lenny Curry, Michael Sampson, Mike Williams, Nicholas Lawson, Phil Gilmore, Reginald Boston

Jefferson Davis Junior High School

Posted on February 28, 2020 | Leave a comment

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My father and I were the only white people on the basketball court. He was 40 years older, at least, than everybody else. I’m writing this story on his 96^th. He died six months ago tomorrow.

Of what beloved Jacksonville architect Taylor Hardwick thought of designing new schools with the names of Confederate leaders, there’s no record. The only black faces in 1960s Jeff Davis yearbooks are those of the custodial staff. And the school principal, Wilber C. Johnson, standing beside a Confederate flag and wearing blackface.

“We will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree. / We will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree. / We will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree, / As we march along!”

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Tagged Alexander Stephens, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Battle of Yellow Tavern, blackface, Bob Gray, Brown v. Board of Education, Confederate Park, Cornerstone Speech, desegregation, Fort Pillow Massacre, Grand Wizard, In Memory of our Women of the Southland, J.D., J.E.B. Stuart, jax psycho geo, Jay Dee, Jeff Davis, Jefferson Davis, Jefferson Davis Junior High, Jefferson Davis Middle School, Jesse Jackson, Kirby Smith, Lost Cause Movement, Martin Luther King, Morrison's Cafeteria, Natham Bedford Forrest, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, Robert E. Lee, Robert Gray, Sam Wolfson, segregation, Southernaire, Taylor Hardwick, Tim Gilmore, Trinity Baptist Church, Trinity Christian Academy, Wilmer C. Johnson