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Organizers Plan Thursday March Against Confederacy Statues From Jacksonville To St. Augustine

Bill Bortzfield
/
WJCT News
The Confederate statue in Hemming Park (pictured) will be the starting point of a Thursday march.

The March for Change will start in Jacksonville and make its way to Saint Augustine, beginning Thursday morning in downtown Hemming Park.

The idea is to bring attention to the movement to take down and relocate statues honoring the Confederacy.

The activists will be marching for days from one city to another. That’s intentional, said Ben Frazier of TakeEmDownJax on First Coast Connect Tuesday.

Related: Listen to the full First Coast Connect interview

A similar tactic was used during the civil rights era when demonstrators marched from Selma to Montgomery Alabama for voting rights.

“I realize people have a hard time talking about race and racism, but these things need to be faced. We are not talking about just the stone and concrete of these monuments, but the white supremacy that they represent,” said Frazier.

The group wants four local monuments to the Confederacy removed and placed in museums. TakeEmDownJax  is also working to call attention to racial inequities in the criminal justice system.

More information about the march is available on the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition website.

Melissa Ross can be reached at mross@wjct.org, 904-358-6382 or on Twitter at @MelissainJax.