Confederate Statue & Conflict of Interest: Unease Over Proposals for Florida Museum of Black History
The Florida Museum of Black History is expected to be a monument to the African-American experience in the state. Still, a recent task force meeting has raised concerns about the project’s direction. The task force advising the Florida Legislature on a proposed state Black history museum received nine proposals from local governments and organizations. While most of them were well-received, two of the proposals raised eyebrows.
One proposal suggested including Confederate statues among its recommended exhibits. The Havana Community Development Corporation (CDC), a nonprofit headquartered in a 62,000-square-foot Gadsden County facility formerly used as Havana Northside, the city’s first African-American high school, said it would help refurbish and repurpose the school campus to house the museum if selected and cleared for state funding. Harold Knowles, the nonprofit’s CEO, said his group envisions the museum as “a scholarly institute” devoted to the history, artifacts, papers, and studies of African American history and the Old South Confederacy.
To deliver this “blend of multicultural exhibits and parallel research,” he said, the museum would have to foster “an atmosphere of objective rigor, free of historical, emotional overlays.” To that end, Knowles continued, the museum would have to include symbols many Black residents view as celebratory of their past oppression. “While it’s true we plan to curate artifacts from the slave, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights eras, we would be remiss if we did not also curate, acquire, and display academic papers and antiques, including Confederate statues, many of which have been removed from the courthouse squares of numerous southern cities,” he said.
The second proposal that raised concerns was presented by the Carter G. Woodson African American Museum of Florida, a facility already operating in St. Petersburg with a $50 million capital campaign that hopes to expand significantly if approved as the state’s official Black history institution. Its Executive Director, Terri Lipsey Scott, who served as the principal speaker during the presentation Friday, is also a member of the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force. That could constitute a conflict of interest, said Republican Rep. Berny Jacques, the task force’s Vice Chair and a co-sponsor of a 2024 bill that would protect historical monuments.
Despite concerns from some task force members, both proposals were hailed by others as innovative perspectives that should be considered. Democratic Sen. Geraldine Thompson, the group’s Chair, described Knowles’ comments as an “interesting perspective.” She noted that the Legislature removed a statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith from the National Statuary Hall in Washington. The state replaced it with a monument to Black educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Erecting a previously dismantled Confederate statute “causes some, I don’t know, confusion at least in my mind about what it is we’re trying to do,” Thompson said. “But … I’m sure you have a larger package and more details we can look at,” she added.
Republican Rep. Berny Jacques disagreed with Thompson’s estimation, calling Knowles’ proposal an “innovative perspective.” “History should not be erased, no matter how you feel about it, and you cannot tell the tale of the experience of Black Americans without including a lot of these statues that have been canceled or torn down,” he said. “I don’t think they should come down at all, but if they are coming down … there should be a place where Floridians can view them and conceptualize the full history and not pretend nothing happened.”
While both proposals have merit, the conflict of interest should be addressed. If Scott remains on the task force, she should recuse herself from any vote that could economically benefit her personally. Ensuring the project is fair, transparent, and objective is essential.
The Florida Museum of Black History project is expected to be a monumental artwork structure, life-size replicas of people, interactive displays spanning 100,000 square feet of exhibit space, a 10,000-square-foot entrance hall and atrium, and ten halls dedicated to different Black history themes. It is a significant undertaking requiring careful planning, objective research, and a transparent process. The task force has four other monthly meetings planned through May and a proposed location, design, digital rendering, floor plan, and marketing plan. Preparing for a transition from state funding to self-sufficiency must be approved. After that, Florida Department of State staff must assemble a report due to lawmakers on July 1.
This project can potentially be a vital and powerful institution that celebrates the African-American experience in Florida while acknowledging the state’s complicated and often painful history. It is essential to ensure fairness, objectivity, transparency, and inclusion.
