Wasserman Schultz says Confederate general shouldn’t stand for Florida in U.S. Capitol

As monuments celebrating the Confederacy face renewed scrutiny nationwide in the wake of a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz wants Florida lawmakers to meet in special session this fall to replace the statue of a Confederate general that still represents the Sunshine State in the U.S. Capitol.

State lawmakers already voted 18 months ago to remove the statue of Edmund Kirby Smith from the National Statuary Hall after lengthy and contentious debates in Tallahassee. But Smith’s statue remains in the U.S. Capitol because state lawmakers failed during the 2017 session to agree on whom to replace him with when one committee chairman blocked a proposal.

“It’s time to stop playing games,” Wasserman Schultz, a Broward County Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday. “No family visiting our nation’s Capitol should have to explain to their child that the statue representing our state honors someone who fought for a philosophy built on hatred and oppression.”

“Governor [Rick] Scott and the Florida Legislature must take immediate action by calling a one-day special session during their upcoming interim committee meetings to pass a bill with one of the three recommendations from the committee established by law: Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, Mary McLeod Bethune or George Washington Jenkins,” she said. “These three Floridians represent the best of the history of our state. The removal of the Confederate statue must be made an urgent priority.”

“We must denounce white supremacy and domestic terrorism and stand up for love and compassion — not just with our words, but with our deeds,” she added.

Neither Scott, Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, nor House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, immediately responded to requests for comment.

Florida lawmakers return to Tallahassee in mid-September for a series of committee weeks in advance of the 2018 session, which begins in January.

Every state gets to have two statues in the U.S. Capitol to showcase prominent citizens. Florida’s second citizen in the hall is John Gorrie of Apalachicola, who is credited with inventing air conditioning.

After the Legislature voted in 2016 to remove Smith’s statue, an independent panel then voted for his replacement to be among Douglas, a champion for the Everglades; Bethune, a Florida educator and civil rights pioneer; and Jenkins, the founder of Publix supermarkets.

Lawmakers sought this spring to move forward with a statue of Douglas, but a key House committee chairman blocked the bill. The Associated Press reported that Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, preferred to have Walt Disney in the National Statuary Hall instead — even though Disney wasn’t among the finalists the independent panel recommended.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Wasserman Schultz says Confederate general shouldn’t stand for Florida in U.S. Capitol."