A Florida Republican has re-filed a measure to penalize local governments attempting to remove or destroy Confederate monuments and other historic memorials.
HB 496 by Sen. Stan McClain, an Ocala Republican, demands the state protect “each historic Florida monument or memorial from removal, damage, or destruction.” It’s the fourth time this bill has been introduced in successive legislative sessions as part of a broader conservative response to the nationwide movement to down or rename Confederate statues.
“The Legislature finds that an accurate and factual history belongs to all Floridians and future generations and that the state has an obligation to protect and preserve such history,” the bill reads.
Local government officials who try to take down the monuments would be fined up to $1,000, and could open themselves to lawsuits by either the group that helped maintain or erect the memorial or any Floridian who regularly uses it for “remembrance purposes.” A court could award the suing party damages up to $100,000.
The push to remove Confederate images emerged in 2015, after white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine Black people in the Mother Emanuel AME Church a in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof had posed multiple times with a Confederate battle flag leading up to the mass shooting. From 2015 to 2018, roughly 110 Confederate memorials were removed nationwide. In addition, the state stopped flying the Confederate flag over the State House.
Hillsborough County was one of the first local governments in Florida to act following that incident, with the county commission voting later that summer to remove a Confederate flag that had hung in its county center, the Phoenix previously reported.
The Florida Legislature voted in 2016 to remove a statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith that represented Florida in the U.S. Capitol, and again in 2018 to replace it with a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune, known for starting a private college for African American students in Daytona Beach that would become Bethune-Cookman College.
The removal push was reinvigorated in 2020 after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white police officer; nationally, 168 monuments were nixed that year alone, which eventually sparked the counter-movement to keep the statues seen in Florida.
In 2023, Florida Republicans first attempted to pass the measure to ban historic monuments being removed, damaged, or destroyed. Similar measures were introduced in the 2024 and 2025 sessions, but each failed before reaching either the House or Senate floors. As of 2024, Florida still had 73 of these monuments existing statewide.
Sen. McClain’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 2026 session begins on Jan. 13.
JimboXYZ says
Part of me understands a stance to protect history, another for removal. Too many of these State parks have any draw for it’s history. If anything St Augustine to the North of us have monuments & parks for history. Ft Matanzas should be demolished because for what it represents historically for indigneous native North Americans. Why wouldn’t St Augustine’s downtown area be renovated to a modern city ? Anything Castillo de San Marcos history was brutal & savage from War to Piracy & anything else. That would wipe out an economic draw wouldn’t it ?
Laurel says
The Matanzas (Spanish for slaughter) River was named so because Spanish Troops tricked and slaughtered a group of French Huguenots, along the river, in 1565 (actually, the Matanzas Inlet was a bit further south than it is today). We do not considered it heroic, but we do consider it history. The Civil War Confederate generals are still considered heroes, though they represented slavery, and offend many people to this day.
The statues are not necessarily in place of battle, but in southern town centers. If the rider’s horse had all four feet on the ground, the rider died of natural causes. If the horse has one leg lifted, the rider was wounded in battle. If the horse is rearing up, with two feet off the ground, the rider was killed in battle. Our military stations are named after these soldiers. They lost the war.
These statues could, and should, be placed in specific parks, along with the statues of Union soldiers. That would represent history. The Confederate flag, and statues in town centers, suggests heroes. Fort Matanzas and Castillo de San Marcos, represent history in place, not heroes.
chrissy g says
the southern states are the ONLY PLACE IN THE WORLD with statues devoted to a DEFEATED ARMY..think about that..THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WORLD.
THAT is nothing to be proud of..removing statues, paintings etc. is a good thing.
the people who would punish those who remove them are misguided to say the least..
JimboXYZ says
But like it or not, the history is preserved ? The reason Southern States are the only place(s) in the USa with Confederate History ? Easily explained by the facts of history ? The Civil Wat 1861-1865, very few battles fought in Union territory. And I don’t see Gettysburg going anywhere to have historical removed. Outside of that, the entire war was fought in Confederate territory. The opening battles (Battles of 1st & 2nd Bull Run(s) were actually fought in Washington DC area. Union territory. For sake of historical preservation alone. Most folks take the historical perspective rather than the few extremists that take the racism from visiting such historical locations. It’s kinda hard to base a State park on the Civil War without the antagonists Confederacy to the Protagonists of the Union ?
FL’s history of the Civil War, some in Nassau County for Ft Clinch. That started as a Confederate fort, but fell to the Union. Fernandina Beach is the Isle of 8 Flags. That’s a preservation of history, whether it was good, bad or mixed era of it’s history. There are cemeteries in the Fernandina Beach area that have Confederate grave markers, Why stop at removing that ?
I don’t know how one preserves the history when it is what it is ? FL seceded in 1861. Union Ft builders abandoned the site, the Confederates of FL seized Ft Clinch, more like squatters that were expelled 1 year & 2 months ? Much like the Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine.
“Confederate Flag
On January 8, 1861, two days before Florida’s secession, Confederate sympathizers (the Third Regiment of Florida Volunteers) take control of Fort Clinch, already abandoned by Federal workers who had been constructing the fort.
General Robert E. Lee visits Fort Clinch in November 1861 and again in January 1862, during a survey of coastal fortifications.”
“United States Flag
Union forces, consisting of 28 gunboats commanded by Commodore Samuel Dupont, restore Federal control of the island on March 3, 1862 and raise the American Flag.”
https://www.shrimpfestival.com/history/
My point is, there’s a one by one case for anything, but for removing any of it, there is a potential for manipulating the authenticity, losing the history of Anywhere, USA.
St Augustine was also a Confederate port, eventually the Union seized control of it as well. Ft Matanzas had zero significance it was pretty much a ruin of neglect by the time the Civil War started. Not much to be offended for there as far as Civil War goes ?
https://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/the-civil-war-in-florida.htm
DaleL says
The first battle of the Civil War was fought in the harbor of Charleston. Confederate traitors opened fire, unprovoked, on Fort Sumter, a United States military fort. It the first days of the rebellion, American forces were NEVER the aggressor.
Florida’s “Declaration of Causes” (https://www.civilwarcauses.org/florida-dec.htm) is similar to those of other Confederate States. The main “cause” was slavery.
Monuments, in public locations, dedicated to individuals (depicting them heroically) who took up arms against the United States, are abhorrent. These people helped cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of brave Americans and their deluded followers.
In addition, the Confederate States never had a chance of winning. From day one of the Civil War, Confederate states lost territory. That is the reason that almost all of the fighting was in the southern United States. As William Tecumseh Sherman wrote as the Civil War began:
“The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth – right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.”
The leaders of such a “bad cause” do not deserve monuments. They should be reviled for what they were, traitors.
Laurel says
Hey! Welcome to “Free Florida!” We’re heading back in time all the way to the Civil War, and calling it a winner! We could have named some road after George Wallace, if he’d only not seen the light later in life. Well, we are resurrecting Sen. Joseph McCarthy to sainthood, so we continue to embarrass Florida residents, while focusing on the useless petty instead of healthcare and the cost of living. Keep on truckin’ Florida Republicans!
Dusty says
Sounds good those that ignite history are doomed to repeat it’s mistakes.
Pogo says
@Hey pa — what IS the exchange rate for Confederate Dollars to Euros?
Sherry says
History is generally preserved in “museums” not elevated to “look down” on people in town squares and public places. Why continue to celebrate and “look up” to monuments that relate to such a “disgraceful” period in our history? Take down the statues, and if they are passionately treasured by the local populace, put them in a museum.
The “important” thing is to learn from our past mistakes! Good luck with that!