Week 9

Last week I started a conversation about the Monuments of Olustee and in that post, I briefly mentioned Lake City and their Olustee monument. Now, some Confederate monuments are being moved by the communities in which they exist, especially after the death of George Floyd. The monument of Olustee at Lake City is one such monument that is being considered. In Lake City, there is an Olustee monument. The initial question is whether to move the monument? The city council had voted to move it, but there had been some question over who owns the monument and the land it sits on. The city had requested a quitclaim deed for the land. 

Now, like with the monuments I discussed last week, some disagree. This article about a county meeting discussing this issue provides further information than what I may discuss here. The people who addressed the council all had their own opinions. The article linked shows many of them. When looking at the Union monument, they brought the concern over editing history and how it was erasing it. Again this is the case here, members of the community worried that their children would not be getting the full history. There were other opinions. Two men seemed more concerned that the council takes more time to consider the community and the impact of moving the monument. There are two statements that I found interesting. It was not something I saw much of when reading about the Union Monuments at the battlefield. One focused on the emotional impact of the monument being celebrated while the other discussed the impact of the Confederacy itself. 

I first want to focus on the statement about the Confederacy itself. In her statement, Vanessa George stated, " The Confederacy, that's division. If we are going to be honest, the Confederacy: all those were traitors of the United States.." (Lilker, Stew). George does not forget to mention that while there were African American Confederates did not always go willingly. As I read further into these monuments, many people talked about the history that was being threatened by the monuments being moved. Yet, we cannot ignore the history of the Confederacy. These were slave states. 

Many people living in the community who do not want the monument moved have family ties to the Confederacy and the Battle of Olustee. Whether a monument gets moved has an emotional impact. There are those who have a positive emotional bond and those who have a very negative association with it. Learning about the civil war in its entirety is important, it is American history. Even though it ended 156 years ago, we still see the impact and responses people have to it. These situations emphasize the impact the division of America still has. 

Lilker, Stew. “One Civil War Battle of Olustee Monument – Two Views – Back to Square One for Lake City.” Columbia County Observer, September 5, 2020 06:30 pm. https://www.columbiacountyobserver.com/master_files/County_News_2018/20_0905_one-civil-war-battle-of-olustee-monument-two-views-back-to-squkare-one.html.