Downtown Bradenton prepares for Confederate monument protest

Demonstrations are set to begin in downtown Bradenton surrounding the now-covered Confederate monument next to the Manatee County Historic Courthouse.

A unity march and protest demanding the monument’s removal organized by the Black Lives Matter Alliance Sarasota Manatee Chapter, Indivisible Bradenton Pro-gressive and Answer Suncoast is planned Monday evening. The group will be meeting at 6 p.m. near the South Florida Museum and will then march to the Manatee County Historic Courthouse for their protest.

America First-Team Manatee, a group of local Trump supporters, is also planning its own peaceful rally in support of preserving the monument.

Both are set to begin at 6:30 p.m.

In preparation of the demonstrations, several roads and parking lots in downtown Bradenton will be closed.

At 5:45 p.m., Manatee Avenue will be closed from 12th Street West to Ninth Street West.

Law enforcement asks those not involved to avoid the downtown Bradenton area.

On Friday afternoon, the Manatee County commission voted 6-1 in favor of covering up the Confederate monument to protect it in preparation for a protest and rally planned for Monday evening. It took more than four hours Saturday for four county building and development services workers to frame the monument with two-by-fours and then cover it with plywood.

The monument, which has a Confederate flag etched on one side and the names of Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee etched on the other sides, was unveiled in June 1924. The Judah P. Benjamin Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the monument after getting approval from the Manatee County Commission in March 1924.

Black Lives Matters Sarasota-Manatee said the protest will be a peaceful but “a powerful show of our collective voice to end the glorification of symbols of pain and inequality,” according to a statement issued Monday.

The group asks that anyone who sees something suspicious, to contact someone with a bullhorn.

“We encourage everyone to stay vigilant and care for each other as we challenge white supremacy in our communities through this collective, unified and peaceful protest,” the statement said.

Senior Circuit Judge Thomas M. Gallen supports that the monument should be moved, he wrote in a letter to the editor.

“Justice is defined as rightness, equitable, morality and lawfulness. All court houses in the United States should be a symbol of justice,” Gallen wrote. “A monument on the court house lawn honoring those who fought to continue legally denying justice and freedom to a class of American human beings is repugnant to the administration of justice and should be moved to an appropriate location.”

Though Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who was in Manatee on Monday, didn't know any of the details about the local protest, he said he supports the removal of Confederate monuments.

"The Confederate statue that is in the United States Capital they decided a year ago they wanted it taken out and I support that decision. Likewise in Tampa there is a Confederate memorial there where the county commissioners said they would move it to a more suitable location. The community responded with $150,000 to do that within 30 days and the money was pledged in 24 hours. So I think it's pretty clear."

Nelson said what the country needs is more focus on the winning side.

"What we need are monuments that celebrate those who fought for saving and to unify the nation, not to divide it. There are certainly an appropriate place for historical markers to understand history, but not all of those belong in the most revered place in Washinton D.C."

This story was originally published August 21, 2017 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Downtown Bradenton prepares for Confederate monument protest."