Dear City Commissioners
Many cities from the old South are removing statues/memorials and are also renaming major roads that honored Confederate leaders. UT Austin also moved a Jefferson Davis statue to a museum. What are your views on this?
Brownsville has had numerous racist incidents in the past. Our biggest one happened in 1906. Feel free to Google "Brownsville Black Raid". The newspaper was very biased in its reporting. The soldiers involved were later pardoned by President Nixon.
We also had a bridge known as "N" bridge and it appeared in local maps with the racist slur. We can only imagine what took place on that bridge. Yes, we are a city full of history and we're proud of it. We can't deny that we were part of the Confederacy. But, what is the purpose of keeping the Jefferson Davis Memorial at Washington Park?
It was originally on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Palm Blvd. It marked the Jeff Davis Memorial Highway which never really took off. I'm glad that the highway was never successful. It was then moved to Washington Park (not sure when). Hundreds of families enjoy this park, especially during big community events like Sombrero Festival and Cyclobia.
What do you think the monument tells families when they are enjoying the park? My wife is African-American, so my children are of mixed heritage. We have a growing population of African-Americans in this community. This monument does not welcome the descendants of those who've been enslaved and oppressed in the past.
Our nation fought to unify our country during the Civil War. Sadly, many people did not obtain full rights until the 1960s. We don't need reminders of a bygone era in a space that should be welcoming. We need to stop kissing up to the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy! They claim that it is heritage. Well, their heritage thought that it was a God-given right to own people. This is not right.
I urge you to remove this monument. Move it to a museum, replace the plaque with a respectable historical figure, or even add an Abraham Lincoln plaque to it. We can honor history without being racist. Let's welcome all Americans to Brownsville. A response is appreciated.
Thank you
It was originally on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Palm Blvd. It marked the Jeff Davis Memorial Highway which never really took off. I'm glad that the highway was never successful. It was then moved to Washington Park (not sure when). Hundreds of families enjoy this park, especially during big community events like Sombrero Festival and Cyclobia.
What do you think the monument tells families when they are enjoying the park? My wife is African-American, so my children are of mixed heritage. We have a growing population of African-Americans in this community. This monument does not welcome the descendants of those who've been enslaved and oppressed in the past.
I urge you to remove this monument. Move it to a museum, replace the plaque with a respectable historical figure, or even add an Abraham Lincoln plaque to it. We can honor history without being racist. Let's welcome all Americans to Brownsville. A response is appreciated.
Thank you
Antonio Castillo and Numerous Brownsville Residents
To sign an opnline petition, click on link: : https://www.change.org/p/
To sign an opnline petition, click on link: : https://www.change.org/p/
10 comments:
This marker needs to stay where it is. It signifies the southernmost point of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway. We do not need to be reactionary on these issues. We are not ISIS and they history they are destroying in the Middle East!
Yes, we need to dynamite that damned rock! But let us not stop there. Washington Park???? That moniker needs to go, for Washington owned slaves and was obviously a racist. Then there are streets named for racist slave-holders, e.g. Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. Out with them! We must insure that all feel welcome in our wonderful city. Therefore, let us offend no one!
In that case let us start with the Charles STillman house and the Sancha house too.
A marker is not racist!. This is American history. The erasing of American monuments will do NO good!
Exactly. Also this group needs to understand: It was not a Civil War. It was an illegal war which the Union began when it invade the Southern states. Lincoln ordered troops to illegally cross into Virginia. The Confederacy was not attempting to overthrow the Union rather to separate from it
It's not at the end of the failed Jeff Davis Hwy. It used to be on the corner of Elizabeth and Palm Blvd. Nobody wants to destroy it. We want to move it to a museum or even Palmito Hill. As it stands, it serves no purpose but to remind people of a traitor.
Jefferson Davis was a Gay racist traitor! Pinche vato piel de Joto!
Juan honestly I don't think people even read these markers because they are in English not Spanish, so as the Beatles sang, Let it be. focus on other issues that we cant do anything about like that dan sanchez/pete Sepulveda commissioner/jugde fiasco political triangle dealigns. now that's juicy stuff people like to read.
Bear in mind that if you want to erase another man's history, there will come the day when others will want to erase yours.
I agree, Brownsville has so much history. Leave it there untouched.
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