人兽性交 grants support organizations that seek to remove Confederate symbols
Once a month, members of the (CJEF) meet in the small back room of Sandra Macon鈥檚 church to discuss what to do about the problem at the Walton County Courthouse in DeFuniak Springs, Florida.
Just outside the courthouse stands a marble pillar erected in honor of 鈥淲alton County鈥檚 Confederate dead,鈥� and flying just beside it is a Confederate flag. Macon, a retired U.S. Army veteran who was born and raised in DeFuniak Springs, passes by it every day.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a slap in the face,鈥� Macon said. 鈥淟ike a wound that鈥檚 been rubbed with salt.鈥�
Macon, 66, was born during Jim Crow, just as the modern Civil Rights Movement was gaining steam. She remembers the segregated 鈥� then integrated 鈥� schools she attended in the Florida Panhandle town, where about 7,000 people live today. She recalls how her family entered restaurants and businesses through back doors and how the railroad tracks that bisect Baldwin Avenue divided the town鈥檚 Black and white neighborhoods.
For Macon and the members of CJEF, there is no honor in what these Confederate symbols represent. Last year, the group received a grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center to aid its effort to remove the flag and relocate the monument.
鈥淭he 人兽性交 was of the first groups to offer us support and guidance,鈥� said CJEF co-founder Mike Bowden. 鈥淥ur work with them has really been wonderful for us. It鈥檚 a lonely business doing this committee work. We don鈥檛 have much in the way of tangible results, but we continue to pledge ourselves not to give up on this effort. So, it鈥檚 really great to have the 人兽性交 on our side.鈥�
The grant was one of eight awarded by the 人兽性交鈥檚 Intelligence Project to support grassroots advocates who are working to remove Confederate monuments and other iconography from public spaces in their communities.
Bowden said the grant has helped the group draw attention to the campaign on social media and in the traditional media. CJEF is also working with to develop messaging and strategy. E Pluribus Unum was founded by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who gained national prominence for removing four Confederate monuments in his city.
鈥淧owerful, transformative change happens when communities organize together around their own needs,鈥� said Rivka Maizlish, a historian and senior research analyst for the Intelligence Project. 鈥淭hrough this pilot project, the 人兽性交 is funding grassroots organizations working to remove Confederate symbols that perpetuate the 鈥樷�� myth and glorify the Confederacy as a noble cause. These groups are inspiring examples of advocates who are pushing for and often achieving lasting change.鈥�
In addition to CJEF, the recipients of the pilot grants include , in Jacksonville, Florida; the in Atlanta; , a film about the effort to remove a memorial to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Murray, Kentucky; in Florence, Alabama; the in Durham; in Fort Bragg, California; and the in Florida.
A political act
The monument at the Walton County Courthouse was the first Confederate memorial to be erected in Florida after the Civil War. It was installed in the cemetery of a local Presbyterian church in 1871 and later moved to the town of Eucheeanna, the county seat. When DeFuniak Springs became the county seat in 1886, the monument was to the courthouse.
The flag at the courthouse was first flown in 1964, as segregationists were pushing back against the Civil Rights Movement, installing hundreds of Confederate flags and monuments in public spaces across the South. Today, more than 2,000 of these memorials and other symbols still exist across the U.S., as documented by the 人兽性交鈥檚 Whose Heritage? initiative. The project 鈥� sparked by the 2015 murder of nine Black worshipers by a white supremacist gunman at the 鈥�Mother Emanuel鈥� AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina 鈥� tracks and contextualizes publicly displayed symbols of the Confederacy and provides communities with resources to aid in their efforts to remove them.
Since 2015, advocates have successfully removed, renamed or relocated 377 Confederate monuments and symbols from communities across the country. One month after the 2015 Charleston massacre, community members successfully pushed South Carolina legislators to remove the Confederate flag that had flown at the statehouse since 1962. Five more flags have been removed in different states since then. In Florida, 77 of these symbols remain in public spaces 鈥� two of them Confederate flags, flown in Walton and Marion counties.
鈥淐learly the flag was erected in 1964 to push back on the Civil Rights Act,鈥� said Bowden. 鈥淭he monument goes back much further than that, having been erected shortly after the Civil War. Having it moved to the courthouse is a political statement. It鈥檚 an act that claims the courthouse as white territory, that this is an area that belongs to us, and we鈥檙e laying claim to it by putting our monument to those who fought to maintain slavery on the courthouse property.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want a monument to that history to be placed on public property. It belongs in a museum or in a cemetery.鈥�
Bowden, who is originally from Michigan, moved to Walton County on the heels of former President Donald Trump鈥檚 election. As Trump鈥檚 xenophobic rhetoric further polarized the nation, he and his wife, Susan, looked to connect with like-minded community members. They joined a 2017 campaign to petition county commissioners to remove the flag. In 2018, the commissioners put the question to residents in a nonbinding referendum, but 65% of voters opted to keep the flag. The Bowdens decided to continue the fight alongside some of the former petitioners. CJEF blossomed from that effort.
Pushing forward
The 人兽性交鈥檚 grant could not have come at a better time. As with many grassroots initiatives, funding can be a major challenge. The 人兽性交 grant helped CJEF launch a public awareness campaign that includes three digital billboards at key junctions throughout the county.
The idea is to apply economic pressure on the county by appealing to tourists who flock to the county鈥檚 beaches during summer months. About 30 miles from Florida鈥檚 Gulf Coast, DeFuniak Springs is a main gateway to the destination. In 2022, tourists accounted for 76% of the county鈥檚 retail spending, according to its most recent annual . That year, more than 5.3 million visitors contributed almost $5 billion in direct spending to the economy.
While the group said that its letters and calls to county officials often go unanswered, it believes that threatening the county鈥檚 dollars may get their attention.
鈥淥ur hope was that posting a billboard would have some economic impact 鈥� that people who came would recognize that was part of what Walton County is about and choose to spend their vacation dollars elsewhere,鈥� Bowden said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little early to tell whether that will happen.鈥�
Their attempts to get the Walton County Chamber of Commerce on board have yielded mixed results.
When CJEF鈥檚 vice chair, Drexel Harris, wrote in a letter to the chamber that it was listed as a sponsor of the monument on the county鈥檚 website, its name was quickly removed from the site. Yet the chamber has not agreed to support the removal of the monument and flag.
鈥淭his is a conservative area,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淪ome Republican state legislators are trying to pass a bill to make it illegal for anybody to a Confederate monument,鈥� as Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have done.
Despite these obstacles, CJEF members remain resolute in their fight against the celebration of the Confederacy and white supremacy.
鈥淭hey want us to shut up and leave this alone,鈥� said Macon, the retired U.S. Army veteran. 鈥淏ut we won鈥檛 stop coming.鈥�
Image at top: Drexel Harris, co-chair of the Committee for 人兽性交, Equality and Fairness (CJEF); Susan Bowden, a CJEF founding member; Kimberly Allen, senior media strategist for the Southern Poverty Law Center; Mike Bowden, CJEF co-founder and co-chair; and Shauna Lewis, community engagement manager for E Pluribus Unum. (Courtesy of CJEF)
