Bradenton Unity March Prompts Security Concerns

BRADENTON, FL — In the wake of deadly violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, Manatee County Commissioners plan to take a proactive approach to public safety in advance of Monday’s planned Unity March in Bradenton. The commission announced its intent to hold a special meeting on Aug. 18 to “discuss public safety concerns.”

The meeting is set to take place at 3 p.m. in the first-floor chambers of the Manatee County Administrative Building, 1112 Manatee Ave. W. During a Thursday morning Port Authority meeting, commissioners asked those planning to participate in the march to “remain peaceful and respectful,” a statement from the county said. Friday’s meeting is intended to help commissioners review “options they can take in advance of Monday’s planned events,” the county noted.

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The Black Lives Matter Manasota Chapter, The Rodney Mitchell Foundation, Indivisible Bradenton Pro-gressive and other groups plan to “peacefully protest for the removal of the Confederate monument in front of the Manatee County Courthouse” on Monday, Aug. 21, BLM Manasota wrote in a media release. The protest is set to begin at Riverfront Park at 6:30 p.m. with a march to the 1115 Manatee Ave. W. courthouse planned after.

The Confederate memorial was placed in front of the courthouse back in 1924. The project was funded by the Judah P. Benjamin chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy.

BLM members and the other groups behind Monday's march say the statue was created “during of the most violently anti-black decades of the Jim Crow-era United States,” according to a statement released by BLM. “The statue is emblazoned at its base with a Confederate flag – a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan adopted in the early 20th century during its second wave.”

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The groups say they are hoping to the rally will convince county commissioners to relocate the monument from a public space “to a museum so that it can be displayed as an artifact of history.”

“What does it mean for a young black person who has been told they are created equal to see a statue in front of their courthouse which celebrates and symbolizes a part of society that did not want them to exist as free and equal humans,” Shakira Refos, co-leader of BLM Manasota and an event organizer, said in a statement released Thursday. “This is not political. This is just a fight between right and wrong,”

BLM organizers say they are keenly aware of the violence that broke out in Charlottesville and intend for their protest to be peaceful.

More information about the Unity March can be found on Facebook.

Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia left one counter-protester dead and has increased racial tensions across the country. The rally was planned by white supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, to protest the removal of a Confederate monument.

Since Saturday’s violence, riots and rallies have broken out across the country. In Durham, North Carolina, an angry mob claiming to be anti-fascists toppled a century-old statue of a Confederate soldier outside a courthouse.

Photo credit: Getty Images/Ty Wright