Armed with the results of a new poll they say shows overwhelming support for their side of the issue, a group of veterans held a news conference in front of the Hillsborough County Courthouse Annex in Tampa today warning members of the County Commission to resist any temptation to reverse their vote to keeping a controversial Confederate monument in front off the building.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist said he now supports moving the Confederate monument. The Republican voted the opposite way last month, but now thinks it should be relocated if a proper location will accept it. Crist was one of four Republicans on the County Commission who sided with activists to keep the monument in front of the Hillsborough County Courthouse Annex, a controversial decision that has outraged many parts of the community.
Activists and interested citizens gathered in front of the Confederate monument in downtown Tampa on Tuesday, seeking to push the Hillsborough County Commission to reverse its 4-3 vote last week to keep the statue where it’s been standing for more than 100 years. Calling themselves the Hillsborough Community Protection Coalition, they included members of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP, CAIR Florida, Fight For 15, clergy, pastors and concerned citizens. “This is a spiritual warfare,” said the Reverend James T.…
Two days after Hillsborough County Commissioners made national news by voting to keep a Confederate monument in front of its County Courthouse Annex, the Hillsborough Democratic Party says the commissioners who did so “should be ashamed of themselves.” Four commissioners, all Republicans, voted to maintain a statue built in 1911 of a Confederate soldier in front of the courthouse. They also approved Crist’s proposal to add a mural behind the monument, showcasing what Crist called “love and diversity” of the…
Saying she doesn’t think there is a sufficient “voter influence” for minority candidates currently, Sky White, a 33-year-old community activist who had filed to run for the Hillsborough County Commission District 7 seat last month, has decided to drop out of the contest. “Definitely don’t count me out, you’ll be hearing from me again,” White told FloridaPolitics.com Wednesday night. “I just want to make sure that I’m focused on the right thing right now.” A licensed personal nurse, White is also…
After three hours of intense debate, the Hillsborough County Commission decided to keep a Confederate monument that has stood outside of the Hillsborough County Courthouse Annex for more than a century. Commissioners also approved Wednesday a plan to enhance the statue of a soldier by adding a painted mural celebrating diversityon a wall behind it. The 4-3 vote was a bitter defeat for Commissioner Les Miller, the lone black member of the BOCC, who announced earlier this month he believed…
For the third year in a row, the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to maintain what is now known as the Tampa Bay Next (TBN) project, despite dozens of citizens who told them that they should remove the plan from the MPO’s Transportation Improvement Project (TIP). Although the controversial Tampa Bay Express (TBX) is gone in name, critics who spoke before the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting Tuesday night said its DNA remains throughout its named successor, Tampa Bay…