A sign-toting supporter of the monument’s removal paraded in front of commissioners with a poster lamenting a “Jim Crow Clown Show.”
For longtime residents and newcomers alike, the scene was a discouraging display in a county that lags behind other counties statewide in per capita income, education, healthcare and other important areas.
For some, the monument debate is an unhelpful distraction that has outlived its relevance.
For others, the division over the statue is tied into deeper issues that also have affected the ability of the county of 74,521 residents to lift itself out of stagnation.
“To see this kind of conflict between groups, it’s disappointing to see in a little community like this,” said Larry Beaton, a fifth-generation Palatka resident and historian for the Putnam County Historical Society. “People don’t stop and think how that looks and how people perceive that, even the elected officials.”
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