Statement on Confederate Monuments

​The Jacksonville Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America stands in solidarity with Take Em Down Jax, Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, and other activist groups demanding the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces. We share Take Em Down’s commitment to “the removal of ALL symbols of white supremacy from the public landscape as a part of the greater push for racial and economic justice and structural equity.” 

As socialists, the struggle against white supremacy is central to our fight for radical social change. Racial oppression is key to the capitalist power structure, and in fighting symbols of white supremacy, we also struggle against capitalism. In 1928, Black socialist intellectual W.E.B. DuBois wrote about the connection between mythologizing the Confederacy and accepting the systemic oppression faced by contemporary Black people:

Today we can best perpetuate [Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s] memory and his nobler traits not by falsifying his moral debacle, but by explaining it to the young white south. What Lee did in 1861, other Lees are doing in 1928. They lack the moral courage to stand up for justice to the Negro because of the overwhelming public opinion of their social environment. Their fathers in the past have condoned lynching and mob violence, just as today they acquiesce in the disfranchisement of educated and worthy black citizens, provide wretchedly inadequate public schools for Negro children and endorse a public treatment of sickness, poverty and crime which disgraces civilization.

​The Jacksonville City Council is acting as “other Lees” in 2022. They lack the moral courage to take a small step toward justice, but we can force their hand by showing broad public support for the Take Em Down movement. 

These statues support a white supremacist power structure. Tolerating them in our public space or dismissing their presence as “just” symbolic perpetuates the status quo of racial oppression, which is honored and celebrated by the racists who fight to keep them up. Their Confederate flag flyover stunts come at a time of increasing antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. We must reject and counter Christofacist hate and violence wherever it appears.

Going forward, this coalition must work to replace leaders who act as “other Lees”. For too long, local leaders have acquiesced to the problems caused by neglect and a failure to face systemic failings, leaving Jacksonville plagued with a lack of affordable housing, good jobs, and social services. Transforming the city into the one the people deserve will take an organized working class, demanding tenant protections, workers’ rights, and a budget that serves the people.

• Contact the City Council
• DSA Executive Director, Aug.17, 2017: Confederate monuments must go immediately
• Council votes down resolution asking city to make plan, budget $500K to remove Confederate monuments
• The Neutral Ground, documentary about the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans
• The actual history of Jacksonville’s Confederate monument in Springfield
• On the Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy
• No Excuses for a Racist Murderer: W.E.B. DuBois on the Legacy of Robert E. Lee
• Jacksonville Community Action Committee’s People’s Budget
• Follow Take Em Down Jax on Facebook & Instagram