Confederate Memorial Day Puts Florida Town In Spotlight

BELLEVIEW, FL — A small Florida town with deep southern roots has found itself in the spotlight as Wednesday’s observance of Confederate Memorial Day nears. Belleview’s decision to allow its local Sons of Confederate Veterans unit to observe the holiday by flying the Confederate flag alongside the U.S. and Florida flags is creating a bit of a flap, but not necessarily from residents of the tiny town in Marion County.

“In regards to phone calls and emails we have received, the observation of confederate memorial day occurring at Belleview City Hall tomorrow, April 26th, is not an event sponsored by the City of Belleview,” city leaders wrote on Facebook Tuesday. “The grounds were requested on behalf of a local group who are hosting the event and are in no way affiliated with the City of Belleview.”

The Confederate flag has come under heavy fire in recent years with many saying it is a symbol of racism. Counties across the Sunshine State removed Confederate flag displays from government centers following the June 17, 2015, shooting in Charleston, S.C., that left nine black churchgoers dead. Even so, the Florida House of Representatives recognized April 26's Confederate Memorial Day on its 2016 listing of holiday observances. April is also recognized by the state as Confederate History Month.

The observance Chuck Kadel, commander of Belleview’s Sons of Confederate Veterans, told the Ocala Star Banner is an important one. Soldiers who fought for the Confederacy were “veterans just as American veterans are.”

As for his organization, Kadel told the paper it tries “to preserve the history too, not just raising the flag. Today they want to erase all the history.”

Florida became a state in 1845, but seceded from the Union on Jan. 10, 1861. Florida was among the southern states that joined the Confederate States of America by February of that year. The state witnessed only two major battles and a few skirmishes, but served a crucial role in supplying the Confederacy, the University of South Florida's Florida Center for Instructional Technology’s website notes.

While Belleview’s decision to allow the memorial day service to go on has prompted calls and emails to city hall, town officials told the Associated Press no complaints had come in from residents of the town of 5,000. The city's decision, however, made news across the country with media outlets from as far away as Waco, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota covering it.

Image credit: Richard Elzey via Flickr used under Creative Commission