Governor’s statue in Florida courthouse could be on way out after racist speech discovered
A Florida county may remove a courthouse statue of its namesake governor after a speech he made calling for African-Americans to be resettled was uncovered.
Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief, who is black, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel she would have no problem removing the statue of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, who was governor from 1905 to 1908. The county was named after him when it was incorporated in 1915, five years after his death.
A courthouse gossip website JAABlog recently uncovered the speech, which called for the U.S. government to purchase land and move the nation’s African-Americans there to establish a new country.
“The white people have no time to make excuses for the shortcomings of the negro,” said Broward, who is best known for partially draining the Everglades. “And the negro has less inclination to work for one and be directed by one he considers exacting, to the extent that he must do a good day’s work or pay for the bill of goods sold to him.”
Michael Styles, a Broward attorney, said he would oppose the statue’s removal. He said that while Broward’s comments are unacceptable today, he was also prominent in the establishment of Florida A&M University, the state’s historically black public college.
