Florida Dems call for special session to replace Confederate statue in Capitol

Democrats in the House’s Florida delegation urged Gov. Rick Scott (R) on Wednesday to call a special state legislative session to replace a Confederate statue in the Capitol complex.

Only states have the power to remove statues from the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection, at least nine of which are considered monuments to figures supportive of the Confederacy and white supremacy. Each state contributes two statues to the collection and must follow a process to change them.

One of those statues is of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith of Florida, which is currently displayed in the highly trafficked Capitol Visitor Center.

The Florida legislature enacted a law last year calling for the removal of the Smith statue, but state lawmakers have been unable to reach consensus on a replacement.

{mosads}In a letter spearheaded by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the 11 House Democrats hailing from Florida wrote that removing the state’s Confederate statue in the Capitol complex “must be an urgent priority.”

“As the third largest state, and easily one of the most diverse in the nation, Florida has an opportunity to send a defining message by replacing the state of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith that currently represents the state of Florida in the United States Capitol,” the lawmakers wrote.

“While replacing one statue won’t come close to addressing the systemic racism, bigotry and intolerance that plague our society, it remains nonetheless an important step in the fight against these repulsive prejudices.”

Many Democrats in Congress, led by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have revived calls to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol following the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month. Multiple cities and institutions across the nation have moved quickly since the events in Charlottesville to take down Confederate monuments, including Baltimore and the University of Texas at Austin.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) plans to introduce legislation to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol, while Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) have filed a bill prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds to display Confederate symbols on federal property.

There are at least nine Confederate-associated statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection, including Florida’s Smith, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

There’s little that lawmakers in favor of taking down the Confederate statues in the Capitol can do without changing the current policy to replace contributions to the National Statuary Hall Collection.

Democrats have suggested that the statues in question could be moved to less prominent locations. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has noted that while serving as Speaker she moved the Lee statue from Statuary Hall — one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Capitol — to a place a floor below known as the Capitol Crypt.