In the wake of last week's racially-motivated church shooting in Charleston, SC, civil rights advocates are pressuring Florida lawmakers to remove symbols of the state's Confederate past they say have no place in the present.
In particular, the advocates want the Florida Legislature to pass a measure to remove a statue of Kirby Smith from the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. The Florida-born Smith served as a Confederate general and in 1922 state leaders designated his likeness as one of the state's two allotted statues in Washington.
"When we think of the advances Florida's made since 1922, Henry Flagler building the railroads, Walt Disney building Disney World in Central Florida and what that's done, just those two people alone, it's really hard to argue that Kirby Smith's impact was so significant he should still be represented in the U.S. Capitol," said Steve Schale, a political strategist who ran President Obama's 2008 Florida campaign and is spearheading the drive to remove the Kirby statue.
Critics are also pressuring legislative leaders to remove a painting of a Confederate flag and soldier at the center of a historic mural just outside the Florida Senate's chamber in Tallahassee. Not everyone, however, agrees with the effort to ban the display of Confederate symbols.
"It's a flag, I mean, if you don't like it, don't look at it. It's a flag," said a tourist from Tampa Bay touring the state Capitol Monday who asked not to be named.
"It's a landmark. The flag on I-4 is definitely something that, when we go down into Brandon, we look forward to seeing it," she said, referring to a giant Confederate flag that can be seen from one of Florida's major thoroughfares.