An Orlando blogger is reigniting an effort to get the city to remove a Confederate memorial that has been towering over part of Lake Eola Park since 1917.

  • Man wants removal of downtown Orlando Confederate memorial
  • David Porter to attend Orlando City Council meeting Monday
  • Memorial has been at Lake Eola Park since 1917

During an Orlando City Council meeting Monday, David Porter will ask council members to remove the controversial monument from the downtown park.

“White supremacy has no place in the modern-day South," Porter said.

“In 1917 when they put that there, nothing could be done about it by the black people who lived here. But today, I can do something about it," Porter said.

A City of Orlando spokesperson said the Confederate memorial was donated to Orlando in 1911 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was installed at Lake Eola Park in 1917.

“It’s heritage and hate. Understand again, that statue was put up in 1917. Three years later in Orange County, a gentleman by the name of July Perry was lynched down by the Country Club of Orlando. What was his crime? He tried to vote," Porter said.

After an Organize Now petition was started by a citizen in June 2015, city leaders said they have subsequently received numerous petitions for and against the statue.

After two years of consideration, city staff is still exploring options for the future of the statue.

“Put it in the History Center, and that would be the appropriate place for it," Porter suggested. "Then, you could have the appropriate information around that statue to put it in the proper context," he said.

“The Orlando United Day is going to be on June 12, and they’re going to have events at that park as part of that. How do you have events where you’re saying this is an inclusive community when you have a white supremacist statue over Lake Eola?" Porter asked.

“What I’m asking City Council to do is to remove that statue or to have at least make a commitment to remove that statue before the 12th of June," Porter said.

“Symbols mean something; that statue means something," he said.

News 13 has reached out to the Florida Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy for comment.