A monument honoring the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, was installed in a nearby location in 1926 but, objections raised by veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic caused it to be removed. Thirty years later, there was a surge of Confederate monuments installed in the years immediately following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling. Many groups retaliated to this desegregation ruling by reestablishing memorials to the Confederacy. The plaque we see today was placed in a similar location in 1956.

After a several-year redevelopment ending in 2016, the city decided to not reinstall the plaque in the new park but, 'after some time and a bit of haggling, the marker appeared in the sidewalk on the north side, without comment'.[1] We believe this monument has no place on any city or county public property, especially in a public park.

San Diego has this one known remaining Confederate monument outside of a local cemetery and honoring the civil war.[3] San Diegans, especially our African American and other people of color community, as well as the hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, should not be asked to honor our nation's racist past, nor support the continued racism and hate we see today around the nation.

The Civil War was fought in large part to end the brutal practice of slavery. It included four years of intense combat leaving approximately 1.1 million Union (642k) and Confederate (483k) soldiers dead.[2] The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and 4 million slaves were freed. If anything, we should honor the defeat of the Confederacy and not support the continued romanticism or our nation's racist past.

For these reasons - We The People - insist on the immediate removal of this monument and the permanent restriction of any future sponsorship or hosting of this or similar monuments by the City of San Diego.

America's Finest City has no place for racism.

[1] http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~caudc/DivNewsletters/Nov2016.pdf Jefferson Davis Highway Committee p3
[2] https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm
[3] https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/whoseheritage_splc.pdf